A tribe called kale: Friday, the Washington Post 's Dana Milbank described Michele Obama's (figurative) bottle-smashing launch of a farmers' market blocks from the White House -- the First Lady used her influence to make the market happen. Milbank focused on the event's high theater: the spectacle of the White House security caravan Baghdad-barricading streets so Obama could buy two bunches of Tuscan kale. It was red meat to the irony-deficient Milbank. And though at Civil Eats today, Sam Fromartz pronounces feh on the "snarky criticism of columnists who miss the forest for the kale," the story gets to the squirmy dilemma at the heart of the organic and sustainable argument. Milbank put it this way: "The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob." The fact that the D.C. market accepts food stamps can't zero out an uncomfortable truth: farmers' markets are expensive places to shop, prohibitively so for the poor. Milbank noted $19 bison steak and $12-a-pound dandelion greens -- no doubt particularly rich examples, but still: During this week's Hunger Challenge, when organizers are inviting us to try eating on $4 a day (the average daily food stamp allowance in California), the two stories serve as a reminder of how firmly America seems fixed in a hopeless deadlock between the people of the Tuscan kale and the people of the Top Ramen.
• Firefly 4288 24th St. (at Diamond) 821-7652
The cozy new American restaurant in Noe Valley has some homey-sounding Rosh Hashanah menu items (they run tonight through Sunday, September 27) that add special twists to the traditional. Begin with delicata squash latkes with heirloom applesauce and sour cream ($9) or chopped chicken livers with heirloom tomato juice and baguette toasts ($9.50) among the seven starters. Continue on to the Levy family holiday beef brisket with pot roast-y gravy, kasha varnishkes, and romano beans ($21) or roasted vegetable savory noodle kugel with creamy tomato sauce, crimini mushrooms, and red chard ($19), or one of the five other entrees. Sunday through Thursday, there's a prix-fixe deal: any appetizer, entrée, and dessert of your choice for a flat $35.
• Jardinière 300 Grove (at Franklin), 861-5555
Jardinière has put together a special Yom Kippur menu for Monday, September 28, as part of its regular Monday night changing prix-fixe dinner offerings. The $45 tariff even includes three wine pairings. You can break the fast with matzo ball soup (with a 2007 Marco Felluga Friuliano Italian white), braised brisket with glazed carrots and Le Puy lentil salad (matched with a 2004 Bonny Doon Grenache blend), and an apple, grape, and oatmeal tart (with a 2007 French Muscat dessert wine).
We're giving you plenty of notice. Just so you'll be prepared to turn down whatever play dates and church picnics you might otherwise have to drag yourself to.
On Saturday, October 10, some new-school, food-focused beer-drinking is going down in SOMA. NOToberfest is a "beer and nosh" event featuring, among other things, the ubiquitous 4505 Meats, Humphry Slocombe, and a special, bourbon barrel-aged NOToberfest lager from Valley Brewing. According to Jesse Friedman of beerandnosh.com, Ryan Farr and the 4505 team will prepare a feast that sounds like it could be filed under "epic." That includes such satisfyingly rustic eats as a center-cut slab of grass-fed Magruder Ranch beef roasted over an open fire, and something called "hopped rolled pig face." Naturally, Humphry Slocombe is engineering beer-infused ice cream and other treats to go with.NOToberfest drops at Mars Bar (798 Brannan at Seventh St.), October 10, 1-5 p.m. Pre-event tickets are $50, and include all beer, food, and a tasting glass. Door tickets will run you $60.
On September 25, David Lebovitz -- the Bay Area pastry chef turned author and blogger -- will talk about his newest food tome, The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious -- and Perplexing -- City (Broadway Books, $24.95). After the death of his partner in 2002, the one-time Chez Panisse pastry whiz moved to Paris. His latest book is a fun and instructive look at what it's like to be an American working and living in Europe.
The event is free, noon-2 p.m. Oh, and if you've never been, Fog City News is something of a tempting paradise -- be sure to allow enough time to browse the shop's selection of publications, sweets, and sodas.
Spread over two floors in the 1913 Chronicle Books building (it was the machine shop for a factory specializing in warships during WWI), the loft space is all exposed brick and splintery wood, with swaths of gunmetal blue, Danish modern tables and chairs in teak, and a huge retro billboard hyping beer. In other words, a solidly manly vibe that honors the building's past.
The lunch menu is strictly of the moment: meticulously flat-crust pizzas (in 9- and 11-inch configurations), salads, sandwiches. Flammenkuchen flatbread (an adaptation of an Alsatian quiche-like tart -- $11 for the 9-inch) was delicious -- a crust as thin and brittle like some gargantuan Pop chip, smeared with crème frâiche, dotted with globs of caramelized onions (they tasted a bit like ale) and unselfconsciously fatty lardons of smoky bacon. We couldn't stop eating.A porchetta sandwich ($9) was slightly less lovable, if only because its inspiration seems to have been a turkey on white. Not content to be merely soft and slightly fatty, the thin slices of roasted pork sort of melded with mayo and melted scamorza cheese in a pale, seriously rich stratum.
Ironside 680A Second St. (at Townsend), 896-1127. Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (for coffee); lunch is Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Tonight's party features $4 specialty cocktails and $3 beers and wine from drink sponsors. A partial roster of alcohol sponsors includes La Pinta Pomegranate Tequila, 1 Whiskey, Sagatiba Cachaca, and Tempus Fugit Absinthe. Beer and wine specials are from Bagrationi Sparkling Wine, Widmer Bros. Hefeweizen, and Michael David Winery. There'll be two DJs, and a show of select Drink Me artists. For the 21 and over (naturally); 5-10 p.m. No cover charge with RSVP.
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Coda (1710 Mission at Duboce) is the new-ish jazz supper club (in the old Levende Lounge space) from chef/G.M. Chris Pastena, featuring American and Mediterranean cuisine, as well as live jazz six nights a week. Drink Me appears bimonthly, and it's free.
Of course, real foragers -- not the hapless ones of our post-apocalyptic fantasies -- don't limit themselves to nuts and berries. In Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager (Skipstone, $26.95), the new book by former Bay Area resident Langdon Cook, foraging isn't just a path to reconnecting with nature; it's a way to eat well -- and enjoy some real adventure on the side. We haven't read the book, but it looks like a page-turner -- if descriptions of free-diving for snaggletooth ling cod in Puget Sound and trudging up mountains for morels tend to hold your attention as raptly as they do ours. Configured around the seasons of the year, each chapter hones in on a particular food and ends with a recipe. If you want a taste, he has a blog too.
It's going to be sweltering today -- you'll definitely want to lunch on something that's as breezy as a pair of mandals and some totally cute short shorts. SF Weekly restaurant critic restaurant critic Meredith Brody suggests staying cool with the Arabic salad (tomatoes, cucumber, and parsley, with lemon and olive oil) and falafel sandwich with hummus, tahini, and eggplant at Old Jerusalem, 2976 Mission (at 26th St.) 642-5958.
