Garbage disposer: At Bay Area Bites, Stephanie Rosenbaum files a wide-ranging argument for a bit of off-the-grid food love: urban farming, composting, but also ― most interesting of all, maybe, and least known ― the 20-plus-year-old Food Runners. Cooking school owner Mary Risley founded the organization to expose the shocking amount of food waste that shadows restaurants and catering companies, schools and corporate lunch rooms. Rosenbaum:
Looking for a way to start giving back to the city that had nourished her and supported her business, Risley went first to the SF Food Bank, but realized she wanted to be doing a lot more than packing bags of canned goods. So the Food Bank got her in touch with Daily Bread, an organization in Berkeley run by Carolyn North, which picked up unused food and spread it around to the city's homeless shelters and crisis centers. She asked North if she could start a similar organization across the bay, and North agreed, so long as she changed the name. So in 1987, Risley started Food Runners, a nonprofit dedicated to feeding the hungry by reducing food waste.Read Rosenbaum's passion-filled essay here.
Galuten:
The company will be renamed Anchor Brewers & Distillers and plans to develop a "Center of Excellence" in San Francisco which will focus on the "development, education, entertainment and innovation" of craft beer. Longtime Anchor Brewing owner Fritz Maytag will now be given the title Chairman Emeritus of Anchor Brewers & Distillers.
More details from Brookston Beer Bulletin's Jay Brooks, including a suggestion that Anchor's new owners will continue the company's craft beer tradition, and keep production at the Potrero Hill brewery:
The Griffin Group is led by beverage alcohol veterans, Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio, two longtime San Francisco residents who have been working with Anchor Brewing Company's owner, Fritz Maytag to maintain the iconic brewery and distillery in San Francisco.Read the press release here.
Local slinger of pork products 4505 Meats has come up with three new tee-shirts to let you express your own affinity with butchery. "Bacon is the New Black," declares one. Another is emblazoned with 4505's knife-bearing escutcheon, while a third 9pictured) makes an explicit connection between pork rinds and chesty schoolmarms. (We don't get it either, except as an excuse to wear a garment emblazoned with a chesty schoolmarm.) Each is $25, available from 4505's Web site.
to the
Weekly's Best of S.F. 2010 on May 19, we've teased out92 of our favorite local dishes that taste like
here. All thetasty details after the jump.
As always, this blogger is the resident guest judge who's not averse to accepting good bribes from competitors. We also hope that people won't forget non-bacon brunch staples such as pastry dough and alcohol. Just sayin'. Details after the jump.
A VIP option not only allows a ticket holder to enter an hour earlier, which can be a key advantage at tasting events, they'll also preview flavors from forthcoming restaurants including Bar Agricole, Plum, and Benu and sample wines from RN74's Rajat Parr and cocktails from HMS Cocktails. The full 100 percent of proceeds go to the cause. Details after the jump.
survey
of bread in San Francisco ― the bakedand the steamed, the artisan and the novelty.
Za'atar Bread
Producer: Aroma's Hamati Breads
Source: 22nd & Irving Market, 2101 Irving (at 22nd Ave.), 681-5212; spotted also at Bi-Rite
Price: $4.99 for four 8-inch rounds
Bernal Cutlery's Josh Donald said Saturday's opening was, well, nuts. "There was a 5-minute window of time when people were not coming in," the knife sharpener said. "I'm just trying to keep up with the mountain of knives that people have brought in since the opening." Wholesome Bakery's Harper called the weekend throng "bananas." Still, she said, after the months of planning and construction, she confessed to being stoked. "It's been a lot of work, but it's also so exciting," Harper said.
The market is open daily 10 a.m.-7 p.m., though each kiosk keeps its own hours. Check with individual vendors before you go.
331 Cortland 331 Cortland (at Bennington)
Where can I find mutton? The reason I'm looking for mature ovine meat is because I really, really, like burgoo. That's a traditional Kentucky stew (rather similar to Brunswick stew), and with the Derby this weekend, it's a way for me to pretend that I'm back in My Old Kentucky Home. [Full text of P.J.'s question after the jump.]For all the popularity that offal, goat, and other formerly déclassé meats have gained in Western culinary circles over the past decade, mutton ― or meat from sheep older than one year ― seems to stand little chance of coming back in fashion, due mostly to its gaminess. Most of the butchers I called asking for mutton responded like Bob from Guerra Meats: "Good luck!" he said, laughing. "You're going to have to paint your walls afterward, because the smell is so strong. Mutton is the reason most people are afraid of lamb."
