Before it was born, Little Spoon Soup had been puttering through the daydreams of Sean Betouliere and Erica Garrecht-Williams for a few years. Through that time, the two were avid cooking partners, animating the communal kitchen of a large and lively co-op in South Berkeley: Fort Awesome. Cooking for the house meant cooking for a troupe of at least 16 -- including residents and boarders -- working with goliath pans, portions, and appetites. For a home cook, dinner here is a Bunyan-esque affair, and excellent priming for a fledgling soup business.
With the World Cup in Brazil on everyone's mind this month and now the recent semifinal defeat for the home country, I thought it would be a great cultural learning experience try a signature Brazilian vegetarian meal. Brazil is, after all, a country crazy about its meat from a significant gaucho culture in the mountains and countrysides. You won't find skewers of eggplant or Portobello mushrooms at the churrascarias .
A reader recently forwarded an email chain in which she'd asked Rainbow Grocery to boycott Eden Foods, a Catholic-owned organic food corporation that is Hobby Lobbying its way into not paying for insurance on drugs that "prevent procreation." Rainbow declined the petition for the most San Francisco reasons ever: A vote was held by the worker-owned, democratically-run cooperative, and the boycott did not pass by a two-thirds vote.
Café St. Jorge has occupied a corner spot in La Lengua since it opened in 2013. A cheerful blue and white sign welcomes customers; inside there are sturdy wood tables and blue chairs, white walls hung with local art, soothing music, and a counter laden with housemade pastries (many vegan and/or gluten-free). Excellent coffee courtesy of Stumptown beans is served in a mason jar when ordered over ice.
