Miscellaneous

Last weekend was a crazy one. While thousands (they estimated over 50,000 I think) people poured into SF for Slow Food Nation's many events, some San Franciscans—even some people I'd call die-hard "foodies" (ok, let's move on from this word: a big prize for someone who comes up with something less embarrassing)—opted to skip the lines of people for a Slow Food staycation.

I just returned from a quick tour of the Heartland (Michigan, to be precise) and I am here to tell you that this lovely state, where one is never more than 6 miles from a glorious body of fresh water, is a really nice place to visit in August. Michiganders are just as nice (and as blond and blue-eyed) as you may have imagined, Lake Michigan is really just like a salt- and shark-free ocean, complete with tides and waves and sand beaches, and there are farm stands everywhere.

We got talking in the office yesterday about the trans fat ban in California, recently passed by good old Arnold Schwarzenegger (this was after a breakfast of donuts, mind you, and a heated discussion on the topic of Sara's post yesterday,"fried on the inside.") The ban calls for trans fats to be phased out of restaurants by 2010 and bakeries by 2011 and brings to mind an important question: Can you legislate good health?

Thomas Keller and Hiro Sone

On Monday, I attended a symposium on umami called “New Frontiers of Taste”; it was organized in honor of the 100th year anniversary of Japanese Dr. Kikunae Ikeda’s discovery of umami—which is popularly known as the fifth taste. (The others being salty, sweet, bitter and sour.)

Jessica and I just finished the August food issue (which, for the record, rocks—you have a lot to look forward to). But for now, we're fried. See you on Monday. We'll be back, as fresh as some gem lettuce just plucked from the earth at County Line.

I’ve been slow to join a CSA, mostly because I’m loathe to give up the pleasure of roaming the aisles of my local farmer’s markets. But I might change my ways for a community supported kitchen, however. Recently I came across Three Stone Hearth, which is, as owner Larry Flynt (no, not that Larry Flynt) tells me, a worker-owned food delivery service out of the East Bay.

Remember how I told you about the cheap eats bonanza we’ve been cooking up over here at 7x7? Well, it hasn’t been easy, sussing out the 31 best places in the city for an affordable, delicious meal. Because, of course, to find the best 31 we’ve had to visit many, many more—and let’s face it, not all of them were good. Such was the case last week, when I drove out to the avenues to visit a Chinese restaurant (which shall remain nameless).

Do any of you ever suffer from meal regret? It happens to me all the time (a hazard of the job, I guess)—most frequently when I have a disappointing, though calorie-rich, meal then wish that I’d saved I hadn’t wasted 1/3 of a my daily allotment of food on something that wasn’t even that tasty. But occasionally, the meal regret occurs when I’ve already eaten a full meal of deliciousness, then see something else delicious that I wish I could try but am too full to consider.

I have a dog, so I spend a lot of time walking around the neighborhood on the weekends and checking out what’s going on. I live in the Mission so oftentimes there’s a lot of weird stuff happening—just last week I walked past a brass band in full effect on 18th Street, followed by separate sightings of two people wearing their pajamas—at 4 p.m. on a Saturday.