Foodies Food is good!

After sampling an endless display of some of the best epicurean delights the food world has to offer, at the cost of developing multiple blisters, aching feet and watching my waistline grow, I can honestly say I look forward to doing it again! The Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco epitomizes why it is such an exciting time to be a part of the natural and organic specialty food space. I am particularly focused on the natural and organic space and found it challenging to maintain my focus given all of the interesting twists to so many old and new ..

As a fairly new East Coast transplant to the Bay Area who is highly carnivorous and wants to be environmentally supportive, I have faced a bit of a challenge given my love of beef and some evidence that beef is a major cause for global warming. I want to feel good about what I eat, so imagine my excitement to learn about a movement for sustainable beef!

What? .....sustainable beef...??? And even better, it tastes good! So for me, it is great to know that beef production can actually be good for the environment, as we only seem to hear from ..

One of the great things about meeting food entrepreneurs is their love of food and the business. As great, is their willingness to want to share their passion with anyone who will listen. Jane St. Claire, founder of Savor California, embodies this, as I learned in my phone discussion with her recently. The inspiration for her seven year old company came from her experience meeting many talented small scale artisanal food producers participating in the Cal-Italia Food and Wine Tasting event she was producing for over six years. During this experience she was struck by how many of them did not ..

Recently my friend and I were in a hurry to grab a bite to eat in the East Bay in the town of Piedmont before heading off to a micro brew party in Montclair, and in our rush we were fortunate enough to stumble upon Zatis, a Turkish restaurant. We enjoyed authentic Turkish cuisine and outstanding service at a reasonable price.

Actually, there is a Turkish menu and a more ‘mainstream' one, so if a group or couple includes some folks who want Turkish food and others who do not, everyone has a pretty good chance of having a great meal ..

Occasionally a few of my interests overlap in amusing ways, I happened to be reading the Make: Magazine blog (http://blog.makezine.com) and found this article in the New York times, about the return of artisanal food in Brooklyn, New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25brooklyn.html?_r=2

Mentioned are local chocolatiers, a local store that sells handmade knives, also made locally, and even teaches butchering. 

If any of you Foodies out here have local familiarity with the place, it woudl be great to hear about it.

Have a nice weekend to all.

In sad news, Hershey's announced that not only are they taking Joseph Schmidt chocolate production from the Bay Area, as previously reported, they are now going to shut down the brand soon.

Scary to think what they might do next with Scharffenberger or Dagoba (which is out of Ashland, OR).

But in some better news, I just caught wind of some new Bay Area chocolatiers, TCHO.  (see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/14/MN1215MN82.DTL for more information).  Like Scharffenberger's founders before them, the owners made it big in their previous businesses, NASA and Wired Magazine, and are even taken the same "bean to bar" holistic value chain ..

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/28/BU2F15I9DV.DTL&tsp=1

Many of us lamented way back in 2005 that our local, upscale, boutique choclatiers, Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt, would be ruined by Hershey's acquisition.

Well, for over three years, it seemed we were wrong. I can't comment much on JS truffles, because I've never cared for them much, other than to say the quality (which was high) seemed to be kept up, while the once highly innovative and gorgeous packaging quality seemed to slip, becoming more corporate.  But my beloved Scharffen Berger seemed to take off, extending the brand in meaningful ways, addding delicious single origin chocolates, more ..

A lot of us foodies are watching our budget these days, and that can cut into the fun of inviting our friends over for dinner. As it is post-holiday, we are all being somewhat conscious of our food costs, having cooked several holiday meals, bought presents etc...

We could reduce the number of times we see our friends, but we don't wish to isolate ourselves from the friends and family that matter most regardless of the state of the economy.

Another option is a pot-luck style party, and while this can work, it has some problems. For one, if it's just ..

Many of the food retailers exhibiting this week at the Fancy Food Show (http://www.specialtyfood.com/do/Home) are promoting unique, often relatively costly, foods, such as speciality sauces, dressings and boxed goods.  These lovely products usually cost 2x or more the boring counterpart at Safeway, and generally can't be qualified as required nutrition, falling into the nice to have category.

How will such foods do in the marketplace in 2009?  With limited consumer spending, who can justify an $8 bottle of salad dressing?  While I can't swear the food industry won't take a hit, I think spending will still be good.  Already, ..