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Crush: See You in Wine Country this October!
By Emily Shartin, Epicuring It may have been delayed a couple weeks this year, but this year’s grape harvest (“crush” as it’s known locally) is now in full swing. Having just moved to Napa from the east coast, I’m enjoying my first up-close-and-personal look at this bustling season — the beautiful rows of leafy green vines, the workers in the vineyards, the trucks full of fruit on the roads, and the pervasive aroma of fresh grapes. As you can imagine, this is a great time to visit the Napa and Sonoma Valleys and see for yourself how the place comes alive. You can also check out some unique events at…
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SF Cocktails Transcending the 21st Floor
Tony Abou-Ganim, Joel Teitelbaum, and Marco Dionysos prepare their signature cocktails. By Celeste Noche, Epicuring Through an act of serendipity, Harry Denton’s Starlight Room reopened just as San Francisco Cocktail Week ended. Although the two events were planned separately, both seemed to commemorate a milestone in San Francisco’s bartending culture. In its fifth year running, the city’s annual festival paid homage to its thriving cocktail scene while the Starlight Room’s reopening brought together the best of the old and the new. This week the iconic lounge welcomed a new era while commemorating its past 15 years on the 21st floor of Kimpton’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Powell Street…
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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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Let’s Eat Real Together This Weekend – Prizes and Meet Ups
We’re heading to Eat Real in Oakland this weekend –will you join us? We’re meeting up all weekend long at a few key spots. Eat Real Oakland’s third annual three-day festival is a free celebration of our great food scene all set at Jack London Square in Oakland. There are classes, tastings, demos, markets, a farm and food trucks all in one spot. Epicuring Challenge & Prizes! Win a spot on a tasting tour with Epicuring of Susie’s favorite Berkeley Spots if you complete the three challenge below! Meet Up with Epicuring at Eat Real and pick up our new Epicuring Sticker Take a photo of yourself at Eat Real…
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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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From Seed to Table: The National Heirloom Expo
By Emily Shartin, Epicuring Tagged as “the world’s pure food fair,” the first-ever National Heirloom Exposition* sought perhaps a deeper response to the popular foodie question of late: “Where does your food come from?” This three-day agricultural festival in Santa Rosa celebrated heritage food breeds — those unique, flavorful and often colorfully-named varieties of fruits and vegetables that have often been passed over as farmers opt instead for breeds that will withstand the rigors of travel and supermarket stocking. The festival featured seeds and gardening supplies for sale (it was organized by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which has an outpost in Petaluma), guest speakers (including chef Alice Waters and seed-protection…
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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…
