A Cherry Burger You can’t miss the shiny black Cap’s Food Shack truck, partly because it’s covered in neon-style icons that make it look like a rolling bar. It’s also been everywhere, scenting the air at block parties and outdoor markets with hot burgers and fries. Owner Michael Campusano has been showing up to back-to-back […]
On the Table
Posted inEat + Drink
A Simple Carrot Salad
On a recent evening, while grating a carrot for my usual salad (“Take Time for Salad,” March 23, 2023), I thought how much I like them. And it shows: A quick survey of the dishes whose recipe I have shared on this column brings up several that showcase the sweet root vegetable, including Indonesian orak […]
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Pineapple Express Goes North
Codi Nishimoto could not cook — and not in the “I can’t get the perfect crust on my scallops” way. When she left Oahu to study forestry at Humboldt State University in 2007, she got work as a restaurant server but didn’t venture into the kitchen. “I couldn’t even cook box mac and cheese at […]
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Fungi for All Seasons
Here on California’s Far North Coast, we’re inundated with moisture, even during drought years. Having our foggy little corner at the bottom of the greater Pacific Northwest keeps us in an abundance of forest riches and changing menus as wild mushrooms stagger their seasons throughout the year. Finding these fungal forest treasures is thrilling — […]
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Free Meals and Skills for Kids at the J Café
At one end of the J Café, a little girl in a pink skirt perches on the arm of an overstuffed chair and scrapes her teeth on the skin of a green apple. At the other end, a couple of kids are using tongs to add fresh black cherries and watermelon wedges on their paper […]
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Fifth Street Shuffle
After years of papered over windows, the spot at 621 Fifth St. in Eureka where the former Banana Hut’s palm fans once waved from the ceiling is open again. Once inside, look up and you’ll see the namesake vintage stove hood — roughly the size of a pickup truck bed — suspended over the host […]
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Orick Looks to Hail a Food Truck
If you live in Orick or are planning to pass through the area to visit Redwood National Park this summer, chances are you will have a hard time finding a fresh, hot meal. This is something the Orick Chamber of Commerce is trying to remedy, as the town has long suffered from a food scarcity […]
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A Second Amateur Win at Oyster Fest
It was like old times on the plaza during the June 10 Arcata Bay Oyster Festival: friends hugging and balancing topped up beers, lines for the food vendors lining the sidewalks and bands playing the main stage for an audience of dancers and picnickers in the grass. The official head count isn’t in yet but, […]
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Oyster Fest Hopes to Pack the Plaza Again
The last time revelers swarmed the Arcata Plaza for Oyster Fest was 2019, the pre-pandemic Before Times, when long lines, sunburn and a hangover were the looming fears. Following two years of virtual events and a ticketed in-person event in the Creamery District last June, the annual bivalve bacchanalia is set to take over the […]
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Filling Empty Bowls
As a ceramics student at Humboldt State University in the late 1980s, Mark Campbell made ends meet by taking off his clay-spattered apron and putting on a new one to cook in the kitchens of local restaurants. “I graduated from HSU with an art degree to become a full-time cook,” he says. That career carried […]
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Chocolate Tart Renovation
After 22 years, we finally renovated our kitchen. Refinishing our cabinets and removing the old countertops was a fun project for our family. During this process, our kitchen has been a semi-functioning mess: cabinets covered with plastic wrap, cookware on the dining table and a bare countertop. Luckily my sink and stove were still hooked […]
Posted inEat + Drink
I’ll Have My Spinach with Cheese and Chocolate, Please
“Chocolate is a vegetable,” read a sticky note placed on the refrigerator door in the kitchen of the office where I worked some years ago. I smiled when I read it — that chocolate could be consumed with other vegetables, a culinary path I was not interested in exploring at the time. Then something happened. […]