Life Begins at 30

Golden Gate Bakery on Bay Area Bites

Have you ever been to Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown, the home of the luscious egg tarts?  You can read about the bakery, and about my food beginnings in this city, on Bay Area Bites today.  

Andrea Nguyen: Safe Eating While in Vietnam

Andrea Nguyen has published a great post about safe eating while in Vietnam.  I followed the same sort of safe eating philosophy while I was there for three weeks this year, and was sick only for a couple of hours about a week in.  And I wouldn't do anything differently next time -- I enjoyed the freedom that I had with pretty much eating anything once I'd set my own personal rules about eating fresh food, hot food, drinking lots of bottled water, and not freaking out too much after that.

I would add to this post by saying that I went into my doctor and told him I was going, and that I was going to eat everything, and that I needed meds in case anything happened.  He gave me Cipro, which I never took, and a couple other meds for my travel bag.

I had ice in my drinks a little more often than it sounds like Andrea did, but I had a theory that gin killed any bugs that were in my ice (grin).

Fair Trade vs. Eat Local?

An article came out in the Chronicle last week that really got under my skin, as it attempted to pit the eat local movement against the fair trade movement.  You can see my response to the article on the Eat Local Challenge blog.

Thanks

temple doors, hanoi, originally uploaded by jen maiser.

Without getting too sappy about it, I'd just like to say that my heart is so full today.  I am thankful for ...

my given family:  you astound me with your support and teach me by example,

my chosen family: my friends who are unabashed cheerleaders, my friends who are wiser than their years, my friends who teach me more than they know just by living their lives, my friends who have put up with me since the beginning of time, my friends who are far away but feel very close, my friends who tend toward bossy, and my friends who hold my hand as I tread into uncharted waters,

my favorite flickr photographers who inspire me to be a better photographer on a daily basis,

the ELC authors who are a fantastic advisory board, who have varying points of view, and who are great and enthusiastic writers,

the readers of this site who stick with me through my random musings and also take my eat local suggestions and turn them into action nationwide,

the bloggers I know who are amazing writers and who challenge my perceptions and my writing style,

the bloggers I don't know who are a part of my day,

and every person, every smile, every conversation, every kind word that healed me this year.

I hope that your tables and your hearts are full today.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Get rid of unwanted catalogs

A while back, I gathered all my catalogs and opted out of the company mailing lists one by one.  The project took quite a while, as I had to find the appropriate email address or phone number, and deal with each company individually.  And eventually, I made it back on to many mailing lists and hadn't yet dealt with opting out once again.

This morning, I learned about a new way to get rid of catalogs:  CatalogChoice.org.  This is a project being sponsored by the Berkeley Ecology Center that allows you to opt out using a web interface -- doing in minutes what once took me hours.  In about 5 minutes, I signed up and opted out of 10 catalogs.  The Catalog Choice folks contact the individual companies on your behalf, and even allow you to report infractions.  The process takes a while -- I won't stop getting these catalogs for about 10 weeks -- but it's a great step in the right direction!

FPFM: Meet the Farmer tomorrow

Tomorrow's "Meet the Farmer" interview at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market will be with Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm. 

I've talked about Eatwell a lot on this site, and I really respect the way that Nigel runs his farm.  Unfortunately, I can't be at the interview tomorrow and I wish I could because there are so many things happening at Eatwell right now.

The farm is going through a tough season.  First there was the medfly quarantine that shortened their tomato crop, then about a week after that someone stole some of their chickens.  This week my heart broke when I saw that Sadie, their working dog, was killed by a car and then someone killed some of their chickens (possibly related events, as Sadie may have gone to warn Nigel about the chicken thieves).  Sadie was a lovely dog -- I had a chance to meet her when she was quite young a couple years ago.  My heart really goes out to Nigel and the boys at this time. 

If I were going to the farm interview tomorrow, I'd also also be curious to hear about Nigel's new foray into growing wormwood which is a rumored collaboration with St. George Spirits.

If you miss the live interview tomorrow, the recording will be posted on the CUESA website sometime next week.

Food Photography by Smitten Kitchen

Really great post about successful food photography over at Smitten Kitchen (via Serious Eats).

San Francisco Oil Spill & Our Local Fishing Industry

I've posted about the state of our local fishing industry in light of the San Francisco oil spill on Bay Area Bites.

I was fortunate to be able to interview Kathy and Steve Fosmark yesterday for the article -- they are husband and wife and in the fishing industry.  Talking to them really brought the devastation of this oil spill home for me -- when you are talking to real people whose livelihoods are being threatened by human error and slow response, it's hard to ignore what's happened.

One of the things I didn't talk about in the KQED article is the fact that the fishermen have been pushing to be part of an emergency response team, and are frustrated by the fact that this plan wasn't in place for the spill.  My understanding is that the boats already are required to have equipment which would make them perfect soldiers to help contain an oil spill.  And they are highly motivated to help in any way possible.  All they need is the green light to be able to help.

As an update to this morning's post, the Governor has suspended fishing and crabbing until December 1 at the earliest.  From the Chronicle article:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order late this morning suspending all fishing and crabbing for human consumption in areas affected by the Cosco Busan fuel spill until at least Dec. 1.

The ban includes all of San Francisco Bay, along with affected shorelines, coastlines and waters of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Astonishing ...

This was a fun thing to wake up to this morning.

(thanks, Derrick, for the heads up!)

in my headphones & other random tidbits

color study, saigon, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

• I have a bad habit of listening to music very loudly in my headphones.  I know it's not good for my hearing, but every once in a while it's just something I have to do.  And really, it's better than crack or heroin, right?  All day, I have been listening to all of my Tegan and Sara albums on shuffle.  I was introduced to this duo many years ago by the husband of one of my best friends.  He and I have always meshed when it comes to music and he used to send me cassette tapes of different music before burning CDs and emailing mp3's were the norm.  We all need one of those people in our lives.


• Did you read this about the defunct FBI project to track falafel eaters in San Francisco?  My jaw was on. the. floor.


• If you missed this piece in the NY Times Sunday about environmentally conscious entertaining, it's a rather funny article on the thought process that many of us go through (thanks to my friend Brooke, who sent it along with a note that said "now I feel less alone".)

• If you are not a Grub Report reader you should be.  Stephanie just spent a few weeks working on Jacques Pepin's new show and is beginning to write about her experiences.  I started reading Stephanie's writing a few years back when I came across a great piece by her called "How not to act in a cheese shop."  Through a series of fortunate events, she and I have become great friends.  Being as unbiased as I can be, I still consider her to be one of the best Bay Area writers we have.

• The photo above has no connection to anything in this post -- it's just something that I came across in my files from the Vietnam trip.  I know it was taken in Saigon, but have no memory of taking it or anything about the scene.  It's always a pleasant surprise to have that happen, though I'm a bit bummed I didn't spent more time taking photos of this scene.