I can't say I look forward all year to The New Yorker's annual Food Issue, exactly. It's not as though there aren't plenty of other places to read literate food-writing all year round. Too many, in fact: there's John Thorne's intermittent and marvelous Simple Cooking, Edward Behr's The Art of Eating, Alan Davidson's late-lamented Petit Propos Culinaire, happily still available online; the glamorous though sometimes academic Gastronomica, the young and feisty and local Meatpaper, and there's always the mass-market food magazines, of which Gourmet tends to have the most dependably well-written articles.
But, well, maybe I did look forward to it all year long. Some of the best and most influential food writers of all time are indelibly associated with the magazine, including A.J. Liebling, M.F.K. Fisher, and Calvin Trillin, and other New Yorker writers, though not primarily known for their writings on food, have been known to toss off a brilliant piece about eating from time to time (vide John McPhee on farmers' markets and his favorite chef, and Joseph Mitchell on the Fulton Fish Market). The New Yorkerpublished Waverly Root, Ludwig Bemelmans, and Joseph Wechsberg - giving them a great history from which to draw pieces to reprint.
And besides the great writing, I anticipated cartoons about food, book reviews about food books, and the like. Not to mention a great cover (suitable for framing).
Last week I took it upon myself to show a visitor around San Francisco. The visitor in question, a New Zealander, was on the initial leg of a year-long circumnavigation of the globe, and as a native San Franciscan I wanted her to get home several months from now and say to herself, "Well, the canals of Venice were very nice, and that Great Wall was pretty impressive, but they couldn't compare to that focaccia place in North Beach."
To that end I endeavored to show her everything worth seeing and eating in the northeastern corner of the city (District 3 to you politicos) in the space of 16 hours. We didn't hit all the hot spots, but God knows we tried.
We began with a 9 a.m. breakfast of omelets and fresh berries at Sears Fine Foods (439 Powell St.) - she wouldn't get the dollar-sized pancakes despite my admonitions - then off to the Financial District to check out a few art deco office lobbies and the Maxfield Parrish mural at the Palace's Pied Piper Lounge (2 New Montgomery St.).
Burrito Eater—"San Francisco's top resource for taquerias and mustaches"—is currently in the quarterfinals of its annual Slab Scrum competition to crown this year's best taqueria. I'm delighted to see my hood—the Sunset—representing admirably: The Inner's Gordo and Outer's El Burrito Express both sitting in the top six at the moment, alongside the Mission's Taqueria San Francisco and Taqueria Reina, Soma's El Norteño and the Tenderloin's Taqueria El Castillito. —Tamara Palmer
By Ella Lawrence
It's been incredibly sunny the last few weeks, with the only telltale signs of fall being the smoky smells in the air as land-owners gleefully take advantage of the now-allowed "burn days," sending their piles of yard waste, vineyard trimmings and other floral detritus up to the heavens in pyres. Actually, the colors say autumn as well, too. The trees and vines have gone from fat, green and full of fruit to somewhat spindly and gorgeously flaming shades of reds and oranges. And suddenly, a few days ago, the downtown plaza and surrounding streets have been scuttling with leaves. They kick up and whirl in spirals for a few moments each hour, but the weather is warm.
A few weeks ago, I was taking full advantage of another 80-degree afternoon. Sebastien had brought out all of the barrels from the cellar and lined them up on the crush pad, and I spent over an hour moving from barrel to barrel and stirring the lees with a curved metal stick. The lees is the sediment that collects in the wine, made of particulates and yeast bodies. While the wine is still fermenting (the 2008s have just started to go through their secondary fermentation), this lees must be mixed up every few days to ensure that it ferments evenly.
Brown rice is a delight in the clutches of Emeryville's Grainaissance, which makes 14 different versions of its naturally sweetened, dairy-free and gluten-free Amazake Rice Shake. With hints of nutmeg, allspice and black pepper, not to mention black tea, the Tiger Chai blend is an especially lively version. The company's site has a number of different recipes using its products, and this seems like it might be a particularly good choice with which to try out the suggestions for tapioca pudding and salad dressing. —Tamara Palmer
I love eating out with the kiddies. I have six godchildren, aged between early 20s and three, and I must admit I have a weakness for the one who is the best eater. At the age of 9, Chester was so appreciative of a multi-course tasting menu we were enjoying at Redwood Park, George Morrone's old restaurant in the base of the Transamerica Pyramid, that Morrone presented him with a signed menu reading "To Chester - I think someday you will have my job."
Chester asked me "Should I tell him I'd rather have yours? Being a chef is too much work!" (And also heartbreaking: Redwood Park closed within the year that we dined there, and Tartare, Morrone's next place, also had a brief life. The ex-Aqua and Fifth Floor chef is now keeping a lower Bay Area profile as the executive chef of Boca Steak and Seafood in Novato.)
