Ladies and Gentlemen, we are embarking upon a Bento Boom. The prettily packaged (often very elaborate) box lunch has been around in Japan since the 1600s, has its share of obsessives stateside, and now boasts an upscale San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur as its, uh, bentoperson. Meet Peko-Peko (Japanese for "hungry").
How can a simple, typically cheap boxed lunch go upscale? Well, owner Sylvan Brackett's restaurant background is at Alice Waters' famed local eatery Chez Panisse. His tribute to the food of his childhood -- his mother is Japanese -- do not come cheap. When they're so gorgeously presented in beautiful "to go" boxes, or on traditional servingware when catered, we'd be inclined to shell out the $25 minimum. (Full disclosure: We sampled Brackett's incredible potstickers as college acquaintances). Seasonal, organic ingredients might include Marin Sun Pork Kakuni (soy and sake-simmered pork belly) with chrysanthemum greens or a layered box of Dungeness crab, pork cutlet, local pickled ginger and Brackett's house-brined umeboshi (pickles).
Though gourmet bento has not yet charmed all of America, Brackett studied the cuisine in Japan and declares, "Beautifully laid out food is common there." How does Mom feel about him taking the casual food she served him as a tot and bringing it to the Alice Waters crowd? "She thinks it's amusing."
Another legendary American drinking/dining outpost is under threat of demolition. San Francisco's Tonga Room, located in the Fairmont Hotel, may be forced out after more than seven decades of pushing Mai Tai and pu-pu. It seems the tower of the Fairmont in which the Tonga and its adjacent Hurricane Bar located is slated for redevelopment into condominiums. Plans for the new construction do not include the restaurant.
No definitive word has been said, but blogs and forums are buzzing over the developments and petitions are circulating to save the tiki landmark. Now, some may say that the Tonga's food is somewhat meh or the drinks are overpriced, but who can argue with an indoor rainstorm? Or an indoor lagoon with a band floating on a little raft playing luau music? Multi-headed goddesses and a buffet in a canoe?
The Tonga underwent a big-budget renovation only last year, so it seems silly to tear it down now but, hey, it also seems silly to build luxury condos during a real estate downturn.
A weekly look at the draft selection at beer-friendly bars across the country.
As I've mentioned before, the San Francisco Bay Area has a rich history for beer and brewing. As a result, the city sports a lot of great beer bars and brewpubs. On a recommendation from a friend who was recently in said city, this week's What's On Tap takes a look at one of the area's newer gastropubs, The Monk's Kettle.
Foodies take note: The Monk's Kettle (opened in December of 2007) really aims to put the "gastro" in gastropub. Now, I don't get paid to talk about food (I had half a boiled potato and Fun Dip for dinner), but their fries comes with something called "aioli" and they've got an $8 pretzel on the menu (not sure if that's a pro or a con to try to get beer drinkers through the door).
But food aside, The Monk's Kettle's beer list alone proves they are worthy of a stop if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Check out their entire current draft list after the jump...
So, I know I can be a little East Coast centric with my beer posts. That's what living on the East Coast for the past 7 years or so has done to me. But this only makes me all the more excited to be able to promote SF Beer Week which begins in the San Francisco Bay Area tomorrow.
Running from February 6th through to Sunday, February 15th, more than 100 San Francisco breweries and pubs are participating in around 150 events intended to celebrate the early roots of the modern Renaissance in artisan beers.
With the relatively recent explosion of craft beers and microbreweries across the entire country, it's easy to forget that San Francisco was one of the major forefathers of the brewing revival. Legendary beer writer Michael Jackson went so far as to state in his seminal book The World Guide to Beer, "The rediscovery of American beer began in the West...not in trend-addicted Los Angeles...but in and around San Francisco." He often spoke affectionately of the Anchor Brewery and references Fritz Maytag's involvement with the company as a major turning point in American brewing.
When Maytag became involved with Anchor in 1965, no more than a couple hundred active breweries existed in the U.S. -- maybe less. Today, the country boasts over 1,400 craft breweris, and as SF Beer Week reminds us, "Northern California alone has more breweries than most states and enjoys an unrivaled reputation for the quality and diversity of its craft beer."
Additional info and event listings can be found on the SF Beer Week website at www.sfbeerweek.org.
Everyone knows that every night, somewhere, people are drinking for free. Various bars have promotions from liquor companies, nights when they want to pack the house, and special events that result in totally free drinks, and often free food, as well!
Whether you're visiting or a resident, visit My Open Bar for free drinks in:
New York City
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Chicago
Honolulu
Miami
My Open Bar lets you know what time, what's free, and where it is. All you have to do is show up! They even have mobile and RSS feeds.
Special thanks to my friend Brandon A. for the tip.
Exactly one week from today, I'll be in San Francisco taking a class in artisan bread making at the San Francisco Baking Institute. I'm so excited that I'm positively giddy.
I've been planning this trip for some time, and I do have some ideas about how I'm going to spend my free time in the city. However, there's only so much you can learn from tourist websites, so I need your help: if you have any suggestions on food related destinations I want to hear from you. What are your favorite San Francisco foodie haunts? Where would you eat in the city? Where would you go for food souvenirs?
I'll have a lot to do while I'm in San Francisco, but your suggestions will make the trip even better!
Have you ever gazed out at your backyard and wished you had the time to install and tend an organic vegetable garden (but your busy life prevents you from making the initial investment of energy)? If you're in the Bay Area, you can now outsource your vegetable gardening needs. A new business has started recently, called MyFarm, which will come out to your house, scope out your available space and amount of sun and create a personalized vegetable garden to suite your needs.
The initial installation runs between $600 - $1,000 and then you pay a weekly service charge for maintenance (depending on the size of your yard). They'll also leave a basket of freshly harvested veggies on your doorstep for you (that will often include produce from other, abundantly producing backyards). For those folks who don't know where to begin in creating their own organic vegetable garden, I can see how this could be a valuable service, especially in these days when it's important to know just where your veggies are coming from (they'll even manage your compost pile for you).
There are a lot of sights in the City by the Bay that deserve the epithet "Only in San Francisco." But even in a town where you have a good chance of being knocked down by a transvestite nun on roller skates, this one is a doozy.
Actually, noted Beijing artist Zhan Wang has made stainless steel replicas of other cities (working in stainless is what he does), but The City rendered in stainless steel cookware holds a special resonance, given the history of the Chinese worker in San Francisco over the past 150 years. Thousands of Chinese came over to seek their fortune in California's Gold Rush, but were largely left out of the ensuing riches and many entered the service industries instead.
The pots, serving platters, teakettles and flatware that make up this "sculpture" then, hold a duo political message.
Of course, the only message I'm really left with is this: I left my favorite pork buns in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau wants you to have the greatest dining experience possible on you next trip to the Bay Area. They've added Taste as an additional website to the official visitors bureau site, and it's completely dedicated to food.
I was particularly interested in Taste, as I am going to San Francisco later this summer and I want any dining info I can get. Taste does offer plenty of dining information, especially of you have plenty of cash to spend on your trip. There's a mini blog, Foodie 411, and a calender of upcoming food events. Also, you can check out restaurants based on different categories like 'price', 'dining adventures', and 'al fresco', even the area of town. Overall the site is interesting and east to navigate.
There is one area that I think Taste is deficient in. Taste has a section dedicated to drinks, and it is awful. There is only one brew pub listed and no wine bars, even though they have several wineries listed. I'm not sure what's going on with that, but my guess is that the brew pubs didn't sign up with the visitor's bureau. Either way, if you're planning on going to San Francisco this website can help with dining choices, but definitely use as many resources as possible for the food aspect of your trip to San Francisco.
The Baja meets the Bayou with fish tacos and accompanying fiery salsas, beets get an undeserved bad rap, the Roving Feast goes to Berlin for Potato Salad and Big Meatballs, and a Hae-muhl Pah-jun, Korean seafood "pancake," pairs well with wine.
With all the information in the news these days about the importance of eating locally and organically, the folks out there who can't afford to add these sometimes pricier ingredients (during the summer months, local farmers market produce is comparable or cheaper than its supermarket brethern) to their shopping lists start to feel sadly left out of the movement.
Novella Carpenter, freelance writer and urban farmer living in California's Bay Area has found a way to keep her costs low and her food as local as possible (last summer she spent a month living only on that which came from 100 yards of her front door). The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran an article by Carpenter in which she interviewed a foodie acquaintance who was finding ways to eat healthy, local, organic and (admittedly) slightly fancy foods, all on a fairly limited budget. It's an interesting read and a good source of eating inspiration.
Written by Chez Panisse alum Joanne Weir, Weir Cooking the City is the companion volume to her public television show that aired several years ago. Based in San Francisco, the show and book offer seasonally appropriate recipes that are nicely narrated, thoughtfully organized and not-too complex (although some of the recipes definitely include more steps than you'd want to take on a busy weeknight evening).
I bought my copy for six bucks at the main Goodwill in Portland, OR when I was visiting my parents last December. The previous owner had read it thoroughly and had scattered the pages with yellow sticky notes, marking the recipes that he or she were hoping to try. This is one of the reasons I chose to buy this book over others, I particularly enjoy seeing what appealed to another person.
This is a chunky cookbook with plenty of tasty and interesting recipes. If you come across this one in a used bookstore, flip through and see if anything jumps out at you. It's not a bad one to have on your shelf (if you still use cookbooks) when you need to make something special for friends or family.
Tired of not being in the know?
The feature story this week is on the 
The feature story this week is on restaurateur and 
The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau wants you to have the greatest dining experience possible on you next trip to the Bay Area. They've added 
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