Mission District Tour
My students and I recently went on a tour of the San Francisco Mission District with Edible Excursions. Check out some photos from our adventures below. Write-up coming soon! [Show as...
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So you want to be a food writer?...
Of course, I don't want to discourage you. But it's good to know what kind of world you'd be getting into before you make elaborate plans to spend your life savings on a website and six months hacking away at your computer while photographing and blogging about your gourmet lunches. To give you a more complete picture, check out this video here (it's just a couple minutes and it's SO fantastic!). And check out these blog posts written by one of our guest speakers, Sarah Henry, writer for the blog Lettuce Eat Kale: Will Write for Food and So you Want to be a Successful Food Writer? Here's how. And here's a video by Lauren Lipton called "Adventures in Food Writing." A...
read moreFood Writing Exercises: Writing the Senses...
"There are three important apples that have changed the world," one of my former students said when Steve Jobs passed away: The one that Eve ate in the Bible, the one that inspired Newton's theory of gravity, and finally the Apple brand that Steve Jobs created. I always loved that insight (which was something she'd heard somewhere, in all honesty, but was great nonetheless). In fact, I'm writing this blog post (and experiencing gravity) on an Apple product right now. Because of its rich presence in literature and history, apples are a great food to use for a sensory writing activity because it's so laden with meaning and metaphor. So, today I used it in our food writing class as a writing prompt, and I thought I'd share the activity here on our website....
read moreA Must Read: Farm City, by Novella Carpenter...
With the up and coming Truck Farm project, which will soon pick up speed, I couldn't help but read this fabulous book by an Oakland neighbor, Novella Carpenter. It's a memoir, I suppose, but it's almost more of a travel narrative through the jungles of urban farming. Though gardening and beekeeping are no foreign hobbies of Carpenter's, her virgin foray into raising her own meat in the Oakland ghetto has the exotic surprises, disappointments, and delights of a globe-trotting reportage. In Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, Carpenter guides us through the creation of her urban farm in a shady corner of Oakland. Fatal shootings occur down the street, police repeatedly whisk her car-dwelling neighbor away, and overgrown vacant lots surround the small house she rents. But it's the vacant lot and...
read moreNow I Understand the Macaron Craze...
Okay, I get it now. Tonight marked a big moment in any foodie's life--okay, maybe in any woman's life: I tried my first macaron. I couldn't believe I'd waited so long, really, as I tasted them from the bottom up. The bottom, a pistachio macaron with green-tea filling. The next, raspberry, and the top, lemon with lemon creme. Oo la la. I mean, come on, doesn't the pure French-ness of the word macaron turn you on just a little bit? Aren't you just a tad aroused by all the almond meal and egg white glory up there? You're probably thinking, Duh, of course they're amazing. Why'd you wait so long? Well, allow me to explain. Part of it is because they're ridiculously (nearly prohibitively, in my book) expensive. But it goes much deeper than...
read moreWhen delicious food meets delicious writing…...
My talented friend and fellow M.F.A. graduate Rashaan Meneses recently wrote "Like Fish to Ginger" a lovely and haunting story about a Thai immigrant and the complex chemistry of food and romance. Read the first few paragraphs here, then click on the link for more. It's a beautiful read. The only downside is that now I'm dying for a bowl of curry... Like Fish to Ginger By Rashaan Meneses Before I set out to make my mark in Los Angeles, I chased Sunee. We met in a steamy noodle house in the Dusit District of Bangkok where I elbowed my way from dishwasher to sous chef. Sunee worked as hostess. Both seventeen, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn’t me. Like with a delicate soup, I had to know when to stir...
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