Not Amuse'd: Mission Mission's Kevin Montgomery goes all righteous over coverage of the detention and likely deportation of Amuse Bouche vendor Murat Celebi-Ariner. We'll quote Montgomery in full:
Look, our immigration laws are complete bullshit, but the reality of Murat's (the The Amuse-Bouche Guy) situation is just absurd. This guy is married to a U.S. citizen, could have easily stayed here legally, but instead just let his visa expire while he chilled out selling muffins. His plight is a fucking insult to everyone that has to fight to be here illegally, who have to endure watching their loved ones get deported back countries with oppressive regimes in power while they work for slave wages because of their government-mandated undocumented status, all the while having absolutely no chance to be here legally. Murat had the golden ticket and opted to not cash it in. Let's have a conversation about the people with real problems.This is what Mission Mission reader Ian wrote in response:
While you make some valid points about what Murat could have done differently, having looked through the links you provide I don't see anyone "losing their shit" over anything. You've offered editorial that one guy's concerns aren't worth your time and seem upset at people for offering compassion to someone they know and have appreciated, essentially calling this guy being separated from his wife "not a real problem." Meanwhile, a brief scan of your posting history shows no content for the thousands of deported latinos you've suddenly taken up arms for. How about I Get Sick with that?
What do the rest of you think? Is it wrong to report the story of one guy's immigration troubles? A guy who, though he's from France, is part of the Turkish minority there -- the equivalent, say, of a guy from Central America in the U.S. Holler.
We don't know if this influx is the result of some vast Iowa hog surplus, but it's clear you can get bacon added to ANYTHING in S.F. these days. The "Internet-friendly" meat product has reached overkill to the point where we hear that some blogs have put up an editorial embargo on all things bacon. While we at SFoodie haven't quite reached that level (yet), we do think bacon-flavored peanut brittle is prodding us closer to declaring, "Enough already!"
5. Bacon Pistachio Ice Cream
An occasional offering at Humphry Slocombe, where more discerning meat ice cream connoisseurs can sometimes get a double scoop of foie gras and prosciutto -- owner Jake Godby even hinted recently about a new flavor containing some other variety of salumi, presumably now in beta testing. Need more proof of their Web prowess than baco-philia? Check out the Humphry Slocombe's Twitter feed at @humphreyslocombe.
4. Bacon Potato Chips
In the grand tradition of This Is Why You're Fat, Bay Area street-food chip maker aptly named Who's Your Daddy has taken one guilty pleasure, added it to another, and huzzah. Addictive as they are, survey says, have a salad instead.
3. Peanut Brittle
Another meme-inspired Slocombe creation, you can buy a bag at the checkout counter in case you already haven't already ordered it online. Or had a heart attack.
The good people at Dynamo Donut in S.F. obviously have an Internet connection. They also know their customers. No matter how much we say we're over bacon, we still scoop these up like Free Willy scoops up plankton.
1. Bacon Bourbon
Take the trip out to BarCeluna in the East Bay, and you can get drunk until another cured meat product makes it big on the Internet. Caffienated beef jerky anyone?
Follow us on Twitter at @alexiatsotsis and @sfoodie.• This de-horned 1-year-old Nigerian Dwarf doe up in Santa Rosa sounds like a goat to be reckoned with. The owner writes: "she is skittish and hard to catch but when caught she is fine she will become more people friendly with time." If goat-whispering is a serious hobby of yours -- and it sounds like this little bleater will need to hear quite a few tender nothings before warming up, especially to a new owner -- make an offer. Note the owner's last line: "she is for pet bredding [sic] or milk NOT for food."
• A swineherd in Sebastopol has pigs for sale, well-loved ones currently sloshing around a quarter-acre open-pasture pen. Reserve your share now with a $140 deposit and fork over another cool $130 right before slaughter. In March 2010, you'll receive 75 to 90 pounds of ready-to-inhale pork, cut and wrapped to your gluttonous specifications. Butchering and smoking cost a few extra cents per pound. Holler at Beverly.
• A lovesick college roommate used to lie on the floor of his dorm room listening to Sense Field on giant headphones. We, on the other hand, have always preferred the sonorous grunts of an emu to emo, that melodic, confessional sob-genre of hardcore first truly popular in the early '90s. Thankfully, a farmer in Watsonville is currently selling emu for $150 apiece. However, before you tear down 101, cash in hand, keep one thing in mind: an emu may be noble in visage, flightless, and hilarious to behold, but, look at her crossly, and, just like that beefy, bald dude with bright-red straight-edge tats huffing around the pits you avoided in high school, she will kick you in the face.
Earthy, fragrant truffles are among the most expensive and rewarding of rare ingredients. The hard-to-find fungal tubers often grow at the base of trees, to be snuffed out by truffle-hunting pigs and dogs. Pungent in a way that's frankly sexy, they enhance everything from scrambled eggs to more complicated preparations.
• At Americano in the Hotel Vitale (8 Mission at the Embarcadero), executive chef Paul Arenstam references the annual Fiera del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba with his own White Truffle Week, Nov. 2-6. Truffles will be featured all day long, on all of Americano's menus (even room service), simple preparations that allow the aromatic truffles to shine. They include breakfast eggs with shaved truffles (served all day); risotto al tartufo bianco; pizza bianco con tartufo; and buttered fettuccine with truffles. All dishes are $45, and include five grams of white truffle shaved at table.
A few months ago, this blogger participated in a market research study on food shopping. As expected, three-quarters of the folks trapped for two hours in an ominously mirrored room preferred supporting local businesses over outposts of large corporations. A slender vegan extolled the virtues of his neighborhood produce market. A fast-talking bro in a backwards cap championed his favorite small-time butcher. "Organic," "sustainable," "local," "green," and "natural" -- those buzzwords were hurled like confetti, which was, fairly obviously the point of the whole ordeal. Someone -- or something, we should say -- was very curious about which words had real effects on shoppers, which ones, if affixed to a product, could sway the choices of everyday people. Of course, San Francisco people aren't really everyday with respect to buying food -- which was probably also part of the point -- but "local," more than any other word discussed, resonated most profoundly with participants.
Yet should we support a business like Drewes just because it's local and storied, even if its meats may be no finer than those behind the case at Whole Foods, its prices perhaps higher, and its staff potentially grumpier and less accommodating?
The four panelists were collegial but wildly different. Soft-spoken professional cook Anthony Myint of Mission Burger and Mission Street Food was serious about making charitable donations (in his case, to organizations fighting hunger) part of the business plan. Gobba Gobba Hey's Steven Gdula, who turned to baking gobs when the recession made his freelance food writing career difficult, started baking a dozen pastries at a time in his home oven and has transitioned to being able to turn out six dozen in eight minutes in a commercial kitchen.
Randall Caudle said it's highly unusual for ICE agents to seek out visitors with expired visa waivers. "I've never seen anything like this before," Caudle said. "Especially in a case like, this, with someone who doesn't have any criminal issues. Usually they target people who have criminal issues, gang ties, or just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Caudle suggested the ICE action might be the result of changes in Washington. "The Obama administration has told them not to do worksite raids -- it's an easy target to do visa waiver overstays. All they have to do is search the database and cross-reference it with customs data."
The attorney also seemed to suggest that Celebi-Ariner's chances of avoiding deportation are slim. Yesterday, he filed a Deferral of Action request, claiming that, since the Amuse Bouche street-food vendor -- a French national -- married a U.S. citizen in August, two months after his visa waiver expired, he should be allowed to stay and file for Adjustment of Status. "I think it would have been a 100 percent certainty, had we not filed -- they could have put him on a plane yesterday." Still, Caudle said, the fact that ICE has delayed deporting Celebi-Ariner, claiming that the officer in charge is out of town, seemed unusual, and held out hope that the Deferral of Action request would prove successful.
