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10 Liquor Factoids Absorbed at St. George Spirits
Post-Libation Thoughts from Susie: How often can cocktail conversation trivia actually revolve around cocktails? Not very. During our Epicuring Spooky Spirits event at St. George Spirits at Hangar 1 in Alameda, we not only enjoyed several creative libations such as The Root of All Evil – a root beer / absinthe concoction – we laughed and learned several important bits of information while touring the distillery: Bourbon only comes from the United States. Anything bourbon-like made elsewhere can’t be called bourbon. Consider it our “champagne.” California liquor manufacturers cannot directly sell their booze to the public. They have to sell it to a distributor then buy it back from the…
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Mushroom Lovers’ Events & Classes – Epicuring Picks by Cindy Roberts
Thanks to Cindy Roberts, Palo Alto culinary instructor for sharing her picks for seasonal mushroom events in the area: ‘Tis the season for Northern California mushrooms and you won’t want to miss them. The rains in the last week herald the start of the season in California so prepare yourself for some great eats. Although I tout myself as a mushroom expert I have been humbled recently to find out 500 types of mushrooms grow wild in Mendocino County. That will keep me busy for a long time learning about all of them. Don’t worry if you’re too timid to forage for mushrooms yourself. There are a few upcoming events…
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Boy Did We DIY at Eat Real Festival
A Perspective on Three Fun-Filled Days by Susie Wyshak On Epicuring we post lots of DIY food crafting classes and festivals, not to mention street food events and tastings. For the third year, the Eat Real Festival in Oakland’s Jack London Square brought it all together. From the time the event kicked off Friday night with a Jam Bar (cocktails made with jam), the crowd reveled in local beers, great dance music, and things to learn and taste in every nook and cranny. Photo and video booths captured people’s stories and moods for fun and posterity. We made bagels, shaped pretzels, and learned various bacon-making techniques (which you too can…
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Celebrate a National Food Day Every Day
A bit of seasonal silliness from Susie: Here at Epicuring we dig up and promote interesting events. When you’re in the mode to DIY event, there’s a world of food holidays dreamed up by clever people and organizations to inspire you (and inspire chuckles). For example: How could you have gotten this far in life without knowing October 9th is Moldy Cheese Day; October 20th National Brandied Fruit Day (start brandying now to candy then!); and especially that October 30th is National Candy Corn Day. Does that mean you can start sneaking those tri-colore delights whose ingredients we must squint to avoid reading the day before Halloween? I’d say yes.…
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Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Celebration & Edible Schoolyard Benefits
Chez Panisse pulled out all the stops with several days of events integrating food, education, art, drink, and good people all in the name of celebrating 40 years of Alice Waters’ restaurant in Berkeley and the Edible Schoolyard / Chez Panisse Foundation’s mission to help children eat more healthy, good food. We celebrated in Berkeley over the weekend: Susie attended the Friday party at the Berkeley Art Museum, where hundreds of friends and supporters came to the invite only party. On Saturday, OPEN restaurant hosted a fantastic (and free) farm day exhibition in the Berkeley Art Museum’s garden –there were goats, film producer (and Alice’s former boyfriend) Tom Luddy eating…
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Food & Travel Content Internship with Epicuring
What it is: The co-founders of Epicuring California are seeking a food-mad intern to work with us on the building of our community and help us research, write about, and post the diverse food events and experiences we will feature on Epicuring.com, our newsletter, our calendar and in social media. About us: We have a background in restaurant and food business as well as Internet management, and we call San Francisco and Berkeley home. Our vision is to create a service that traveling and local foodies need, will use to plan their food adventures, and love. About you: We’re looking for a California-loving team member who is as passionate about food experiences as we are…
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Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe Supporting San Francisco Libraries
I’ve found my new favorite cafe in San Francisco – record spinning, library supporting, blue bottle coffee making, ocean siding, super fast Internet serving, poetry reading Readers Cafe. Whether you’re visiting San Francisco or you’re a native hearing about this cafe for the first time, don’t miss this gem. On Thursdays they have San Francisco beat style poetry readings. With all the natural light around Fort Mason and an attached library and book sale, whether you are writing, reading, or working, it is certainly the most lovely cafe for a cause I’ve seen. (415) 771-1011 Readers Cafe information
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We ate well at the San Francisco Street Food Festival 2011
Thankfully the street food festival is becoming an annual tradition in August, run by the La Cocina culinary and business incubator. This celebration of good food from passionate food entrepreneurs, many from other countries and lower income women, weaves DJs and live bands between an orgy of savories, desserts, drinks, and a whole lot more. We spent hours tasting and sharing numerous delicious dishes with Francis Lam of Gilt Taste, Susannah Chen of Yum Sugar, Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy, Rob Bengstrom of Red Boat Fish Sauce and Into the Flames. Our collective favorite bites of the day were: Azalina’s Malasian Penang Curry Bomb Bun—great curry flavor, heat and the…
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August 27 – Eat for Education
Farm-to-table restaurants across the country (and beyond!)–and coffee roasters like Blue Bottle–will be donating a portion of their proceeds from dinner on Saturday, August 27th to local school garden programs in their own communities as part of the eating for education campaign. If you aren’t planning to cook at home that night, eat out for education at one of the restaurants listed on the Eating for Education website! It’s all part of the Chez Panisse 40th birthday celebration and Edible Schoolyard benefit series.
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Foodie Roadtrip Find: Caviar-Like Limes in Santa Monica, California
Early Fall means finger limes – a new breed of citrus in California, originating in Australia – arrives in Southern California farmers’ markets. The newspapers and magazines have discovered these gems, today featured in the Wall Street Journal. Here’s a full post and video about this fabulous discovery when I tasted the finger limes last fall. Plan Your Epicuring Outing: Where & why: You can meet the farmers and taste the limes at the Saturday Santa Monica farmers market. It’s not often that a fruit can entertain kids like these pop rock-like limes. (They’d be super fun mixed with popping pomegranate seeds!) How much: Last Fall the Shanley family was…
