SFoodie is calling up food types around the city to ask them about their favorite discovery of the past year, whether it's new or ancient, an ingredient or a person. We'll be running their responses over the course of the next 10 days.
Jeremy Tooker of Four Barrel shares with us his three favorite finds for the year.
"One food that I sort of rediscovered this year was good ramen," he says."I know that ramen is trending right now, and before this year I didn't really understand it. I had a few bowls at some pop-up shops and local places, and didn't fall in love with it, and chalked it up to ramen just not being my thing."
But something happened that changed Tooker's mind about ramen.
Dear Coffee?: I keep hearing references to the various "waves" of coffee. Could somebody explain what these are and why they exist?
In 2003, Trish Rothgeb of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters (formerly of New York, now setting up shop in the Bay Area) penned a piece for Roasters Guild periodical The Flamekeeper acknowledging the existence of what she deemed a "third wave" of coffee. This referred to the latest, taste-forward, roaster-retailer, highest-quality-coffee-you-can-muster incarnation of the century-old American coffee business.
Rothgeb's "waves" were simply a way to delineate the three distinct eras that the grand ship coffee has floated across on its way towards modernity.
It smells like a Japanese restaurant, looks like a loaf of foie, and delivers a taste reminiscent of foie lathered in mayonnaise. Rau Om's Tofu Misozuke, made in Belmont, is about as close to foie gras as a vegan can ever taste without violating principle.
Tofu Misozuke uses Miso-Cured Tofu, made locally with non-GMO ingredients and cured in fermented soybean paste (miso) for a minimum of two months. The resulting block is similar in consistency to a thick chevre and eminently spreadable. Bread makes a fine companion.
