Food
In an effort to keep Actual Cafe an actual cafe, starting this weekend owner Sal Bednarz will embark upon a month-long social experiment to create the kind of social atmosphere that existed before wireless internet and mobile computers. Bednarz wants people to step away from their Facebook profiles and connect face-to-face.
When it comes to food systems, there are as many definitions of “local” as there are varieties of apple. Given federal, state and local regulations, what reforms are truly feasible? Activists gathered Thursday evening in the Oakland Unified School District’s administrative hub to plan and define their healthy food campaign.
By September, the Oakland Food Policy Council hopes to tell city government officials how Oakland can produce more of its own food and help citizens eat healthier.
Kobe and Miyazaki beef producers are secretive about their methods. But many ranchers in Japan massage cattle daily. Some cows listen to classical music, a method used to relax them. “They are treated as kings,” says one Oakland chef.
Since opening in 1926, Genova’s Delicatessen has served pasta, soups and traditional deli sandwiches to residents of North Oakland’s Temescal district.
This Kuro mame (black beans) recipe comes from a program the Buddhist Church of Oakland (BCO) held 12 years ago, highlighting food for the Oshogatsu (New Year’s) celebration. New Year’s is an important time in Japanese culture. Many of the foods served on this occasion are symbolic and come from the Buddhist tradition. Mame translates to “beans,” but also means “health.” When the black beans are combined with chestnuts (kuri, symbolizing success) and kelp (kombu, symbolizing joy), the dish symbolizes…
A subtle storefront on 40th Street in Temescal is home to a new cafe designed to be everyone’s hideaway.
A container of pasta. A 10-pound tube of ground turkey. A can of tomato sauce. It was a Monday in November at a central kitchen in East Oakland and dozens of cardboard boxes were being unloaded, revealing the three main ingredients for a pasta and meat-sauce dish that would be served to elementary school kids in the Oakland Unified School District that Thursday. In a matter of hours, stainless steel racks filled with clumps of pasta, each in open-faced cardboard…
The lunchroom at Hoover Elementary School has a long metal counter built into the wall between the lunchroom and the kitchen. There’s an industrial-looking sliding metal door that can be opened for serving food directly from the kitchen, but this serving arrangement is no longer used. In terms of food preparation devices, the kitchen now boasts only a refrigerator and an “oven” that is not equipped to do anything old-fashioned, like bake; it only reheats trays of already-cooked meals. Despite the fact that there is no cooking at Hoover, there are still 325 mouths to feed at breakfast and lunch every day.