A modest proposal: It's been a big day in meatlessness here at SFoodie. There was our tease about Jonathan Kauffman's review of Gracias Madre, vegetarian chefs' reaction to Meatless Mondays here in the city, even Tamara Palmer's preview of Friday's vegan potluck happy hour at Hemlock Tavern. We end the day on a controversial note ― Slate's Christopher Cox advocating for vegans to slurp down oysters. Cox is a vegan, except, that is, for the farmed bivalves he can't resist. Here's how his argument begins:
What if we could find an animal that thrived in a factory-farm cage, one that subsisted on nutrients plucked from the air and that was insensate to the slaughterhouse blade? Even if that animal looked like a bunny rabbit crossed with a puppy, it would be A-OK to hack it into pieces for your dinner plate. Luckily for those of us who still haven't gotten over the death of Bambi's mother, the creature I'm thinking of is decidedly less cuddly.We know: Cox is bound to stir up controversy. We're not sure if we buy his argument, even though we eat animals. Read it here, then tell us what you think.
Annie Somerville, longtime chef at Greens, the city's proto-meatless eatery, said that, until it happened, she hadn't been aware of the push for Meatless Mondays. "The more vegetables, the better," Somerville said, adding she hoped more San Franciscans would ramp up their meatless meal consumption, and buy more vegetables at farmers' markets. Personal vegan chef Jesse Miner said it was a good thing to raise awareness about plant-based diets. "It's a wonderful thing for out health, the health of the environment, and for animals," he said. But just as it did Somerville, the news of Meatless Mondays took him by surprise.
Millennium chef Eric Tucker (partner in the Oakland vegetarian wine bar Encuentro) was more skeptical. "To be perfectly honest, it's kind of strange, and I don't see it doing a whole hell of a lot to change things," Tucker said. "It's great to call awareness to dietary concerns, and the whole interplay between one's dietary choices and the environment, and if it brings a couple more people in on Monday nights, great. I just don't necessarily think it's the best use for the Supervisors' time." Tucker said he'd rather see city officials spend time creating new jobs, helping small businesses survive. "There are a thousand other issues," he said.
Event details:
Vegan Happy Hour
Date: Fri., April 9 (and every second Friday of the month), 6-9 p.m.
Location: Hemlock Tavern, (1131 Polk at Hemlock)
At 12:45 p.m., the line was 15 deep. Total wait time: 40 minutes ― not bad for the first day. (Rana and Akash Kapoor's first Curry Up Now truck began selling on the Peninsula last September; they've been trying to get the S.F. truck up and licensed since December.) On the menu, besides those samosas and kathi rolls: chicken or paneer burritos, and tacos with protein options (chicken, paneer, keema, i.e., halal ground beef).
The tacos verde we tried (two for $7) didn't skimp on vivid flavor: under a litter of pico de gallo, onion hunks, and crema, its big hunks of spiced chicken were bright-tasting, though the La Palma tortillas they sat on resembled curled, desiccating afterthoughts. The FiDi burrito (we opted for the meatless Om-Veg version, $8) was thick as a toddler's leg, packed with buttery green rice studded with chickpeas and paneer. Seriously filling.If you live or work in the area, Moxsie is shaping up to be a good place to get a taste of the variety of Bay Area mobile food. Next Friday, it will host the Peninsula-roaming Korean taco truck MoGo BBQ, and hopes to bring back Half Moon Bay's Sam's ChowderMobile in May. Bookmark the company's "Street Eats" calendar for info on future food lineups.
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This weekend, though, Chang will host a bar launch party (and unofficial Green Festival afterparty) around the corner from Live Sushi in a private warehouse location. Rose black, vanilla orchid root, smoked pear, jasmine green, and lavender green kombucha will be available for tasting and sale alongside a selection of food carts including Good Foods Catering, Lumpia Cart, and new cookie vendor Mad4Madeleines, who recently delighted us with a strawberry-guava variation on the French classic.
Event details:
Date: Sat., April 10, 3-9 p.m.
Location: 787 Brannan (at Seventh St.)
Cost: Free
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in the mid-noughts, but too many San Francisco restaurant Web sites
are riddled with errors and rickety site architecture. We spend a lot of time poring over restaurant
sites looking for contact information, hours, owner and chef names,
menus, and mission statements, and lately we've been surprised by how many sites still
make this information hard or impossible to find.
We know you work 80 hours a week and may have limited understanding of
XML, but please look over your site to make sure it contains all the
info that customers want easy access to. Better yet, ask a
few friends and customers, who have more of an outsider's point of
view, to check out your site on their computers and smart phones.
Three tips to avoid annoying us:
The restaurant sits on land owned by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), and is thereby governed by the same regulations as a snack bar in Yellowstone or hot dog-stand in Yosemite. Instead of just re-upping Louis' lease, federal law stipulates a contract for the restaurant site must go out to bid. And if someone outbids the Hontalas family ― goodbye Louis'.As we noted Friday, the Hontalas family is soliciting customer reminiscences via Facebook to help convince the GGNRA they should get to stay, and they're hosting a sort of rally April 17. Read all about one family's uphill struggle to hold on to its business.
