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Eat Real Festival

August 24th, 2010 by Fanny
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Just got through SF Chefs 2010 and then the SF Street Food Fest. Are you ready for another glorious food event?

This weekend, August 27 – 29, will be the Eat Real Festival held in Oakland’s Jack London Square. The goal of Eat Real is to “support a regional food system by bringing farmers, food producers and eaters together”, quoted from their website. Eat Real Festival is a combination of local food, music, crafts, and film.
eat_real_festivaleat_real_festival_3eat_real_festival_2
Events will happen concurrently on 4 stages. See schedule for details.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the events happening onstage:

Saturday

  • Homemade Kombucha w/ Dara Marin of Sage Table
  • Japanese Whetstone Sharpening w/ Josh Donald from Bernal Cutlery
  • Home Roasted Coffee w/ James Freeman of Blue Bottle Coffee
  • The Art + Science of Home Brewing w/ Regan Long & Sarah Fenson of Local Brewing Co.
  • Conquering the Crepe w/ Chef Robert Dorsey III of the Blue Oak Cafe
  • Make Your Own Tamales
    w/ La Borinqueña Mexi-catessen

Sunday

  • Chinese Noodle Pulling w/Chef Gordon of Ark Restaurant
  • Kimchi w/ Delilah Snell of Backyard in a Jar
  • Acid Cheesemaking w/ Mateo Rutherford of Green Faerie Farm
  • Ultra Small-Batch Raspberry Jam w/ Dafna Kory of INNA Jams
  • Makin’ Bacon w/ Chris Arentz of Avedano’s

Highlights of this year’s Eat Real Festival include:

  • 80 of the Bay Area’s most delicious street food trucks and carts once again featuring select sustainable and local ingredients;
  • Fermentation tasting stations featuring handcrafted beer, wine, kombucha and assorted iced teas and lemonades;
  • Collaborations featuring Bay Area food craft producers;
  • Urban Homesteading Zone highlighting a do-it-yourself lifestyle including canning and preserving, cheesemaking, animal husbandry, vertical gardening and more;
  • An entertainment stage filled with music, pizza tossing, noodle pulling and the Flying Knives butchery contest;
  • Literary festival with Bay Area writers taking to the stage to tell stories of food, from things eaten off the street to a food poetry slam;
  • Outdoor short film festival;
  • Fundraising Dinner for community partners. Tickets to go on sale in July.
  • Eat Real’s community partners include La Cocina, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and People’s Grocery.

For more info: http://eatrealfest.com/

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Interview with Matthew Accarrino of SPQR

August 23rd, 2010 by Fanny
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Matt_AccarrinoSF Chefs 2010 Cooking demo at Williams Sonoma in Union Square San Francisco

During SF Chefs weekend, I got to sit in a cooking demo with Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant in San Francisco. He showed us how to make Fresh Squid Ink Pasta with Dungeness Crab, Sweet Peppers, and Basil (pictured below). Chef Accarrino made the dark colored pasta from scratch with a hand cranked pasta machine.

Along the way, Chef Matthew Accarrino threw in helpful cooking tips. He said that when you make the dough, it’s the best time to season your pasta, not when you are boiling it. The pasta has no oil and is cooked 75%. Then it finishes cooking in a pan with the sauce. This squid ink pasta dish was so good that I almost licked my plate! Who knew squid ink pasta could be so good?

After the demo at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco’s Union Square, I had a fabulous opportunity to interview him, on behalf of Foodbuzz. Chef Matthew Accarrino was super nice, very knowledgeable about food, and is probably the only executive chef who sports a mohawk, and can get away with it!

With an impressive resume, having worked at Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur, Todd English’s Olives New York, Chef Mathew Accarrino was also the opening sous chef at Thomas Keller’s Per Se. He then went on to work at New York City’s Craft, Craftsteak, Craftbar, and most recently, Craft Los Angeles.

SPQR_SFFresh Squid Ink Pasta with Dungeness Crab, Sweet Peppers, and Basil

YummySF: How did you get started as a chef?

Matthew Accarrino: I’ve always wanted to be a professional cyclist so I had a lot of control on my diet and cooked for myself. I had an accident and was in bed for months. I watched way too much Food Network in the early 90s’s. So I wrote Emeril Lagasse a letter and he said, “Why don’t you come and work for me?” And so I went and the rest is history. I did some short internships before I went to culinary school [Read more →]

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SF Chefs and More

August 17th, 2010 by Fanny
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Matthew Accarrino
I had such a full weekend full of glorious food sampling. On Saturday, I attended SPQR’s Executive Chef – Matthew Accorrino’s SF Chef cooking demo at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco’s Union Square. After his informative demo, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview him through the help of Foodbuzz.

After the interview, I noticed that the next demo was the famed Chef Gary Danko of Gary Danko restaurant. I added my name to the waiting list and returned later.

Meanwhile, I hopped over to Yerba Buena Gardens to check out Pistahan, the annual Filipino festival. Grubbin’ Filipino food, various stage performers from the Filipino community, and booths with Filipino themed T-shirts, crafts, and community info are what you will find at Pistahan.

The lines were too long at all of the food booths so I decided to set down on the grass and enjoy the stage performances – a rapper and a hip hop dance group worthy of America’s Best Dance Crew.

Then I headed back to Williams Sonoma, hoping that I could get into the Gary Danko cooking demo. I didn’t know that you have to sign up before hand to get a coveted seat (1 of 40), where you are guaranteed food samples from the cooking demo.

When I arrived there were 20 people waiting behind the velvet rope [Read more →]

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Dezy’s Drinks

August 12th, 2010 by Fanny
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dezy_drinks_2

On one Saturday morning, after venturing to the Alemany Farmer’s Market in San Francisco, my husband was on a quest to get his knives sharpened. The usual knife sharpening vendor he frequented at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market was on vacation. So he yelped a new knife sharpening vendor – Bernal Cutlery.

Upon arriving at 331 Cortland Ave., we made the pleasant discovery of a whole new hot spot and mini-marketplace of artisan food vendors! This space of 5 kiosks, houses Dezy’s Drinks & Wholesome Bakery, Bernal Cutlery, El Porteño Empanadas, ICHI Lucky Cat Sushi, and Paulie’s Pickling. What a find!

While my husband was busy talking to Josh of Bernal Cutlery, I somehow wandered to the end of the space, at Dezy’s Drinks and Wholesome Bakery, which both share a kiosk. Right away, I noticed thermoses of chai sitting on a metal shelf. Not one or two but 4 choices of handmade chai! OMG, chai heaven!!!

jars_of_chai

I was able to sample all of them – Original Indian Chai, Almond Chai, Almond Vanilla Chai, and Rose Chai. The Rose Chai was and still is my favorite. I love that you can sample the flavors before buying.

The chais are available hot or iced. I’m starting to develop a liking for iced chai. You can buy a small cup ($3.75) or a 32 oz. jar of chai ($9.50). Return the empty jar and get 50 cents back towards your next purchase. These unique delicious chais are handmade by Desiree Saloman aka “Dezy”, pictured in the first photo [Read more →]

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SF Chefs 2010 Food and Wine Festival

August 4th, 2010 by Fanny
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Photobucket

The SF Chefs 2010 food and wine festival is coming August 9 – 15th, 2010 to San Francisco’s historic Union Square.

What is SF Chefs 2010?

It’s a “food and wine event celebrating the unique flavor, diversity and bounty of Northern California.” – SF Chefs 2010

The San Francisco Bay Area is a melting pot of cultures and flavors as well as a major influencer for food and wine trends and the sustainability movement. You’ll find a community of artisan foods, gourmet food from food trucks, organically grown produce from farmer’s markets, and the best restaurants.

The SF Chefs 2010 food and wine event supports the Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship Fund, to raise money for scholarships to students from the Bay Area entering culinary and hospitality programs.

Go to SF Chefs 2010 to taste amazing food [Read more →]

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