Chinese New Year is coming up Feb. 1. While we are busy getting the house cleaned up, buying ingredients to make traditional snacks and cooking a feast for family, making almond cookies as gifts is another way to celebrate. Classic almond cookies, round and golden like coins, symbolize good fortune. They are more popular during […]
On the Table
Posted inEat + Drink
Resolutions for a Better Food Life
We talk about our work lives, our family lives, our social and sex lives, so why not a food life? The nourishment, enjoyment, creativity and connection food allows crosses into those other realms and goes well beyond the headings of eating habits and diet. I’m hardly immune to the influence diet industry’s January cash grab, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
What-if Cookies
In my first piece of the new year, one might expect me to urge readers to eat more vegetables and offer one of the recipes I seem to be constantly developing. In our household we consume plenty; I find them endlessly inspiring. Often, my last thought before falling asleep is some idea for a soup, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Restaurants Brace for Another Surge, Another Variant
On Jan 3., when news came that Humboldt County had a record-breaking 400 confirmed new COVID-19 cases, as well as two confirmed Omicron variant infections, it hit more than close to home for Six Rivers Brewery co-owner Meredith Maier. She was, in fact, at home after having tested positive for the virus. Luckily, she says, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
A Crab Feast, Lo Mein Style
Crab season has arrived as scheduled, and the catch is quite meaty this year. For some, having crab for Christmas is a wholesome tradition. For me, I can’t picture myself picking stray crab meat out of my Christmas table decorations after I spend so much time setting them up nicely, ha ha! However, I don’t […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Get Festive with a Punch Like No Other
Holiday drinks are as much a part of the celebratory season as Christmas trees, blinking lights and presents. At my house, Mexican Christmas punch, ponche navideño, is part of my festive repertoire. Ponche (pronounced “pon-chay”) is a hot sweet and sour punch served with or without alcohol during the holiday season in many Mexican and […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Old Town Coffee and Chocolates Up for Sale
Outside it’s chilly and misting, but inside the brick-walled Old Town Coffee and Chocolates, it’s cozy. The steamer and the knock of a portafilter drown the low music for a moment and the barista behind the Plexiglas coos at the dog of a regular, scolding it lightly for putting its paws on the counter. In […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Open with Mariachi
Bright Spot on the Hill Under a cloudless sky, a five-piece Mexican band played to the side of the parking lot at the October grand opening of Taqueria Tecoman (2003 Eich Road, Eureka). The speakers were cranked high enough to cause ripples in your horchata. Things have quieted down since. After nearly three decades of working […]
Posted inEat + Drink
It’s Cold Outside, Let’s Make Soup
Late fall at the farmers market makes me think of the fourth movement, Finale, of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony (No. 45, dated 1772): During it, one by one the musicians leave the stage until at the end only two violins are left to play the final notes. One by one, the summer markets have […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Magnificent Matsutake Mushrooms
As soon as the wet late autumn steps in, my excitement for wild mushrooms grows. When I receive texts or calls from my mushroom foraging friends, I feel like a child on Christmas morning. I’m so grateful to live on the North Coast with its beautiful surroundings, great weather and so much food you can […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Bob’s Footlong Closing After 72 Years
Cheyenne Moreno places a split open footlong hot dog on the flat-top grill behind the counter at Bob’s Footlong. The link hisses louder when she drops a grill press on it and turns to warm the bun on the neighboring grill. She flips the dog and covers it in cheese slices and an aluminum dome […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Slow Turkey
As word of a rising prices and a potential turkey shortage spreads, some cooks planning Thanksgiving dinner are snapping up stone-frozen birds or planning alternative centerpieces for the meal. According to the New York Times, the cost of some whole turkeys has already jumped 25 cents per pound. At Tule Fog Farm in the Arcata […]