We reported earlier that S.F. street-food startup Le Truc had agreed to host Eddie Huang, proprietor of Baohaus in New York City, in a throwdown with Chairman Bao. Yeah, the story has the kind of irresistible tension editors like me love: pugnacious little guy accusing better-funded corporate entity of stealing his creativity (in this case, the name Chairman Bao, the name of Huang's signature dish). But really, it's a story that cuts to the heart of where street food finds itself, in San Francisco and beyond.
The underground food cart movement that rolled into the Mission last year is at a crossroads: grassroots startups are wondering how they can grow, when it takes suitcases full of cash and a measure of bureaucratic savvy to go legit. Just as that's happening, investor-backed companies like Mobi Munch are circling for a big hunk of the street-food pie ― a pie, critics like Eddie Huang might suggest, was baked up by independent operators, one crème brûlée ― or bao ― at a time.
Way to go, AT&T. Now if only you could do something about all that animal-hide in the mitts and baseballs....
For comparison's sake, at last year's Great American Beer Festival, 34 beers were entered in the American-style premium lager category, in which Coors Banquet won gold. As for IPAs, there were 40 English-style IPAs, 134 American-style IPAs, and, for good measure, 77 imperial IPAs. If an American IPA is a beefed-up version of its U.K. counterpart, a double or imperial one, algebraically, is twice the beef, adding up to a brutal bitterness. Alas, no major breweries offer anything commercially, but there are several dozen craft versions available, so forgive us if we entered more than the usual number of horses in this race.
Panelists included (besides us) Best Of blogger Jesse Friedman of Beer & Nosh, fellow beer blogger Gail Williams of Beer by Bart, beer-blender extraordinaire Jason Henry (fresh from his invitation to alchemize at Beer Revolution), and ― because we're allowed to play favorites ― this blogger's new bride, Half Pint.
First up on Saturday, Oakland's Novella Carpenter will be back in the house supporting the paperback release of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. Next day on Sunday, expect a meeting of the culinary minds when S.F.'s own Elizabeth Falkner (Demolition Desserts) and Boston's Barbara Lynch (Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition) engage in a discussion sure to wander in a thousand interesting directions.
"Here at the Saloon, we slice the eggs thin and serve them atop toasted rye from Firebrand Artisan Breads, garnished with chervil, sea salt, and nice extra-virgin olive oil," Espinas says. "It's just another attempt to take a humble ingredient and dress it up slightly, like putting a bowtie on it." He notes that the seasonings can easily be changed at the whims of the cook.
For the brine:
2 quarts white wine vinegar
2 quarts water
1/2 cup salt
4 whole dried chile pods (chile de arbol pods, for instance) or 1 tablespoon red chile flakes
1 tablespoon paprika
1 head of garlic, split in half lengthwise
1 tablespoon whole mustard seed
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 sprig of thyme
In the past few days, Huang had been negotiating with S.F. bustaurant startup Le Truc to host the bao throwdown ― er, bao-down. As late as this morning, Le Truc's Hugh Schick was still trying to nail down details with Mobi Munch. Meanwhile, Huang had a simple message for Village Voice food blog Fork In the Road: It's on.
Chairman Bao has apparently agreed to do a side-by-side bao-off with Huang, who will be guest chef at Le Truc."Eddie was invited as part of our visiting chef series," Schick told us. He plans to debut Le Truc at Oakland's Eat Real Festival in late August; formal launch in S.F. should follow soon after. "We will bring in a guest chef every month or two, as the chef's table set-up inside provides for a great deal of interaction between chef and patrons."
Based on his reaction to Chairman Bao, we get the feeling Huang will, indeed, offer a great deal of interaction. For his part, Schick says he's excited about the energy the bao-down will bring to the city's street-food scene. "We hope that Mobi is as excited as we are to participate," Schick said.
We're sure they're thrilled. Just thrilled.
Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
The Umaimono fair is a big, expense event for Mitsuwa, which every year imports a small army of Japanese chefs and producers to its eight stores around the country. Many don't speak a word of English. But most can understand a few basic phrases, like, "How much?" or "What is this?" It's a great opportunity to brush up your high school-level Japanese language skills ("thank you" = a-ri-ga-to; "you're welcome" = duo i-ta-shi mash-ite; "excuse me" = su-mi-ma-sen; etc.) or simply resort to using hand signs ― just point at the item and indicate how many you want. In recent years, the market has enlisted some assistants fluent in English to help non-Japanese customers. (We have to admit that we envy the Torrance and Costa Mesa locations of Mitsuwa in Southern California, since they're much larger stores that allow for more vendors to showcase their products.)
Madécasse Chocolate Tasting
When: Thurs., Jun. 10, 7-9 p.m.
Where: Hub SoMa, 901 Mission (at Fifth St.)
Cost: Free
Reservations: Advance RSVP required
This dinner is the brainchild of Monk's Kettle beer savants Sayre Piotrkowski and Ryan Corbett. They were dining one night at The Fly Trap, and simply ordered every beer on the list to test out various pairings, as is a beer geek's wont. "I was fascinated with the fessenjoon sauce," Piotrkowski said of the classic Persian sauce made from pomegranates and walnuts. "Once we tasted this, I knew I wanted to try a Black IPA."
Therein lies the foundation for the five-course tasting meal, with each course squaring off against a beer chosen by Piotrkowski and Corbett, as well as a wine selected by the Fly Trap's wine director and general manager, Mario Nocifera. He's pondering adding a score sheet to the back of the menu so diners can vote for the beverage that fares best. "These are flavors, spices, and ingredients that have basically no history of being paired with beer," says Piotrkowski. "We could really start at square one and figure it out for ourselves."
