Real Food Underground

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May 12, 2013
by Sarah Cooke
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Moms, Food and Love

Photo courtesy 123RF.com

Photo courtesy 123RF.com

Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely moms out there. This is a short blog, but I wanted to take this opportunity to chat about the powerful connections between moms and food. Full disclosure – I got a little teary-eyed writing this. But that Folgers commercial with the brother and sister always makes me cry, too.

Sometimes, food really is love, am I right? That’s why it’s romantic to cook on a date. Like Cher from Clueless says, “Whenever a boy comes, you should always have something baking.” I think part of the reason we associate food with love has to do with our moms. Marc David of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating suggests that this connection starts as early as breastfeeding. And even if you’re not breastfed, there’s a good chance your mom is the first one to feed you. So in the mind of a child, food and mom’s love are all rolled into one delicious ball of yumminess.

I also associate a lot of wonderful holiday meals with my mom and my grandmothers and I treasure their recipes. Thankfully, gender roles are a lot more forgiving these days! But growing up, it was the women of my family who delivered the goods at holidays and I really cherish those memories.

There’s something wonderfully unique about the way a mother nurtures her kids. And I think the way your mom nurtures you teaches you, in large part, how to nurture others. So when your mom feeds you, it takes on extra special significance. It’s a symbol of the first source of love in your life and it represents the most fundamental way of showing someone you love them. Pretty great, right? So to all the moms reading this – thank you and have a fantabulous day!

May 5, 2013
by Sarah Cooke
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Two Great Bay Area Gluten-Free Spots

Photo courtesy 123RF.com

Photo courtesy 123RF.com

Ok, folks, I’m now in week seven of eliminating gluten and eggs. My astute readers will remember that the original plan was to cut those foods out for six weeks. So here’s the update – in the last two weeks, I’ve finally started feeling the benefits of all my hard work, so I’ve decided to give it about another month. I’ve been on the lookout for gluten-free and/or vegan restaurants and my friend Amie introduced me to two excellent ones that you should definitely check out if you’re in the Bay Area – Miglet’s Bakery in Danville and Kebab and Burger in Lafayette.

Miglet’s is a 100% dedicated gluten-free bakery. Everything is made in small batches and their eggs and produce are locally sourced. And – bonus! – they have quite a few baked goodies that are also vegan. So far, I’ve tried one of their chocolate cupcakes and a snickerdoodle. Both were gluten-free and vegan and both were fantastic. Plus, Miglet’s has a grocery section with items like gluten-free sourdough baguettes (how cool is that?), all kinds of gltuen-free sauces, dressing and marinades, as well as pastas and snack foods. I’m sure there’s a lot I’m forgetting. Just trust me, they carry some great products – and the staff seems to be very knowledgeable about all of them. They have a section of sandwiches and other prepared foods and sadly only a few of those are vegan – but all in all, I was certainly impressed with Miglet’s.

Next up is Kebab and Burger. To appreciate how much I like this place, you have to understand how addicted I am to Mediterranean food. My dad’s side of the family is Lebanese, so growing up, our Thanksgiving meal every year included turkey, bread dressing and mashed potatoes – right alongside dolmas, hummus and fatoush. So Mediterranean fare is comfort food for me.  In fact, I’m convinced I could live quite happily for an extended time on nothing but hummus and chocolate. At Kebab and Burger, everything truly tastes homemade. It’s simple, clean food made with quality ingredients – and almost everything is gluten-free or can be made that way. The husband and wife team who own the restaurant really understand the importance of preventing gluten cross-contamination because she has celiac disease.

It’s not always easy to find great gluten-free restaurants, so I thought I’d pass these on to anyone in the area. And to my glutenless readers in far-flung locales, don’t lose hope! More and more restaurants are offering gluten-free options. And while it’s easier to find this stuff in urban areas, it not limited to big cities. I’ve been surprised to find restaurants that offer gluten-free pasta, as well as some vegan places, in small towns. And that’s encouraging to me – it says that many of us are becoming more aware of both the quality of our food and how it impacts our health.

April 28, 2013
by Sarah Cooke
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Home-Based Food Artisans Sell Their Goodies in Berkeley

bay area homemade market

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of cottage food laws. So I was super excited by the passage in 2012 of a cottage food law in California. Now, food artisans can prepare certain items in their home kitchens and – gasp – give them away in exchange for legal tender. Pretty novel concept, eh?

Now that everything’s legally kosher, the next question for home-based food artisans is how to gain exposure for their products. Setting up shop at farmers’ markets is one way – and quite a few people choose to go that route. But even farmers markets can be tricky – not to mention the fact that they charge vendor fees.

The Bay Area Homemade Market offers a new – and very cool – alternative. Yesterday, I checked out market, which is held in Berkeley at the Firehouse Arts Collective. Once a month, small-batch, home-based food artisans bring their goodies to sell (and they offer plenty of free samples). One thing that was awesome for me was that there were quite a few egg-free, gluten-free products. My favorite was a vegan, chocolate hazelnut cupcake from Jasmine DK Shepard’s Engineered Cupcake. It was all the goodness of Nutella minus the nasty hydrogenated fat. Plus, Jasmine achieved both the perfect flavor and fluffiness – a feat I have yet to accomplish with vegan, gluten-free cupcakes.

I also tried a vegan, gluten-free fig oat bar from Sara Moravej’s Teveh Sweet Life. It was like a Clif bar…if Clif bars were homemade and actually tasted good. There was also a key lime flavor that sounded fantastic. Full disclosure – I’m not sure if the oats are certified gluten-free, but I’m not feeling gross today, so I’m thinking there probably wasn’t much cross-contamination.

The monthly markets also sometimes feature local musicians, which I love because nourishing the body and nourishing the soul go hand in hand. Plus, the markets feature speakers who give educational talks about California’s cottage food law.

So the monthly markets are pretty fun events, all in all – but they’re more than that, too. Creating forums like this to help local food artisans get their start is how we form grassroots, local food movements. If we don’t want to rely upon the corporate food system, we need to support local food purveyors who genuinely care about the quality of their products. Supporting local entrepreneurs improves the economic health of the local community, as well, because the money they make stays local – it doesn’t go back to corporate headquarters. So kudos to the Bay Area Homemade Market for doing something that’s truly progressive and deeply political – and also lots of fun!