All summer, which includes October here, tables at Rooftop (148 E St., Eureka) were packed with those starved for vitamin D and hungry for sushi. But during the damp cold of winter, the indoor tables and counter (at last, comfy bar chairs) offer a view out of the chill and hot, hot ramen. The Spicy […]
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill is the managing editor of the North Coast Journal. She won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s 2020 Best Food Writing Award and the 2019 California News Publisher's Association award for Best Writing.
Posted inEat + Drink
Jerk Kitchen to Close Friday
Yesterday Jason Mitchell, owner of Eureka’s Jerk Kitchen (427 W Harris St.), announced via Instagram that the Jamaican restaurant would serve its final meals of jerk chicken, stewed oxtails and fresh cornbread on Friday, Dec. 20. He begins the post by “saying thank you for allowing me to take one of my greatest loves, which […]
Posted inNews
‘A Big Heart’
In the video, you can only see Mark Campbell’s hands, blunt-fingered and already pale with clay slip, wedding band still visible as he cups a tilted little volcano of clay turning drunkenly on the wheel. He presses it to a symmetrical cake before scraping the bottom edge to clear the excess. Then digging in at […]
Posted inEat + Drink
A Classic Cookie Gets Spicy
Years ago, I made a batch of double ginger cookies with powdered and candied in the dough. Then I immediately remade them as triple ginger, spiking them with a couple teaspoons of freshly grated ginger root. Then came the Mexican hot chocolate cookies barely warmed by a couple pinches of cayenne pepper. Then a couple […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Subservience Fails at Fun
SUBSERVIENCE. I want to be a better person but I evidently don’t want it enough to scroll past the schlockier movies and series cranked out by streaming platforms as Gladiator II and Wicked pull in everyone willing to leave the house. And yes, if a domestic horror/thriller or a creepy AI robot movie pops up, […]
Posted inNews
NCJ Preview: Shopping Local, Patty Berg and Leftover Sandwiches
This week we’re diving into the annual Gift Guide and the joys of shopping local. We’ve also got a profile on the late Patty Berg, a legend in our State Assembly and Humboldt County. Finally, we’ve narrowed down the Thanksgiving sandwiches to our top three favorites. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on local stories.
Posted inEat + Drink
Turkey Lurkey, Baby
The Thanksgiving leftover sandwich is a creation of our collective imagination executed in wildly different ways according to our individual aesthetics. We all think we mean the same sandwich, layered with the remnants of the holiday meal, but we don’t. Turkey, of course, but only carved breast meat? How thick should it be? Are you […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Food Will Not Bring Us Together
Some basic tips for Thanksgiving: Never put mashed potatoes in a food processor or blender because they’ll get gummy; make more gravy even if you think you have enough; do not break bread with people who vote and work against your safety. Since 2016, November bins of frozen turkeys have arrived alongside a crop of […]
Posted inNews
Sequoia Park Zoo Scores Tallest Living Lighted Christmas Tree
Sequoia Park Zoo Director Jim Campbell-Spickler won’t give the exact height of the tree that will be decorated just beyond the Watershed Heroes exhibit, since the public will be invited to guess the dimensions. But is it taller than the Sitka spruce celebrated at Ferndale’s annual lighting event? “Absolutely,” says Campbell-Spickler, who has some climbing […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Baby Assassins to the Rescue
BABY ASSASSINS. In the weeks before the election, I leveled out my internal and external vibes with a steady flow of horror movies — easy enough to do during Spooky Season anyway. But in the week following our nation’s failed group project, I find myself drawn back to the oblivion of action and uninterested in […]
Posted inNews
Zoo Welcomes Red Panda Saffron
Last week, according to a press release from the Sequoia Park Zoo, a young red panda named Saffron moved into new digs here in Humboldt. As part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s species survival plan, the little tyke, born in July of 2023 (a Cancer? a Leo?) at Garden City, Kansas’ Lee Richardson […]
Posted inEat + Drink
What’s Good? Back to Summer and Fieldbrook
Fieldbrook Country Kitchen When the Fieldbrook Market (4636 Fieldbrook Road) closed, Paddy O’Dwyer was among those who grieved. “We used to come here a lot on the weekends,” he says. “It was pretty sad when it closed — it kinda’ preyed on me. Every time I’d drive by, I’d think what it would take to […]