California Taco Trucks blogger Cyrus Farivar put the win in context: "I'm really glad to see old school trucks and street vendors getting some play over the newer flashier variety. I love the Twittering gourmet trucks, but dudes, there's been a whole phalanx of trucks running around the City of Angels long before Twitter." What does a Nina's win mean for us up north? Nothing, really ― except to reinforce the notion that street food here, like its L.A. primo, comes in all provenances.
Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
SFoodie: What is your first Bay Area food memory?
Zaré: Cooking here at the Fly Trap in 1992. When I started here, I was good at what I was doing and I was smart to learn, but I was nervous and I was just following the chef step by step. What he was doing, I was copying. But then, the chef and owner of the restaurant, they made me to be my own, to start to realize that I could create the dish, I could add to or evolve a recipe. I knew how to cook when I came here, but to get to the next level, [they gave me] freedom and tools and support. So that's one of my big goals as a chef in my career, to give what I got to other chefs under me. And now I'm still in this space that has so many memories, and I'm making new memories.
When we launched our SFoodie's 92 project on Jan. 7 ― mapping 92 of our favorite things to eat and drink in S.F., with brief excursions across the Bay or down 101 ― we didn't quite realize what an amazing mass of good food San Francisco has access to. From the cholle bhature at Vik's and stewed baby octopus at La Ciccia, to phớ dac biet at Turtle Tower and the house-cured anchovies at Zuni, we were perpetually gobsmacked that the dishes we'd remembered as good were, if anything, better on recent revisits.
Of course, others ― two or three, really ― pretty much sucked on re-examination (no, we won't tell you what they were). And sure, a lot of stunning dishes didn't make the 92; some show up in SF Weekly's epic Best Of San Francisco issue. Others, well ― when it comes down it, 92 is an awfully skimpy number for a city as gifted as San Francisco. Thanks to Jonathan Kauffman, Andrew Simmons, Tamara Palmer, and Brian Yaeger for collaborating on the 30 posts that follow.
Ready to relive 92 days of the delicious? Start here, then read the rest in Part 2 and Part 3. Start clicking....
Now open:
Estrella Taqueria 533 Haight (at Fillmore)
Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
The odd iPhone app (Taco Loco, for instance) have had a narrower focus than CartCult. Here's how it's designed to work:
A vendor ― Crème Brûlée Man, say ― tweets his location as usual. CartCult pulls the feed to its application programming interface, which aggregates the whereabouts of all participating vendors onto a map (you can see an example on CartCult's homepage).
Move over, Lady Gaga: SF Food Wars competitions, a benefit for SF Food Bank, are now a harder ticket to procure than any megaconcert Live Nation can dream up. When this weekend's Amuse Brunch (Brunch in a Bite) battle at Thirsty Bear went on sale, there were pending orders for all 200 tickets in the system and the event sold out in three minutes, the time it took for a server to process them all. That enthusiasm always all but guarantees a festive atmosphere, but it also makes us doubly grateful to be the resident guest judge and get in the door at all.
We were joined at the judges' table this time by Chow's senior food editor/kitchen goddess Jill Santopietro and Bi-Rite's Karen Armstrong. They were intelligent and thoughtful ladies who we enjoyed dissecting this tiny brunch with, for better or worse.
Other attractions at the LGBT-friendly fair include an orchid sale, family fun space, kissing booth, fortune tellers, and a Glee-off with the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus, Colla Voce, Lesbian/Gay Chorus of SF, and MCCSF. All the nitty-gritty after the jump.
What's so innovative about this packaged ramen? No more squares! The round shape of the block of dry noodles fits in a standard soup bowl, just add water. The whole thing can be microwaved and ready to eat in seven minutes, without any extra pots to wash. The end result of Shin Ramyun ("shin" means "new") is superior to the old Cup Noodles ― any ramen aficionado can tell you that the noodles are not the same.
All the tasty details after the jump.
