For those of us who don’t make it to the blocked-off plaza early enough, the annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival begins with the distance event of hiking from somewhere in the belly of the Creamery District where we’ve parked. It can end with the same challenge, though with increased wobbliness and decreased navigational skill. This […]
On the Table
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The Pots Smell Good
In Christiana, the rural town in Jamaica’s Manchester Parish where his grandmother lived, Dell Bryan learned to cook from her. His wife of 35 years, Joanne Kerr, explains they were both born in the capital city of Kingston, but “he would live with his mom in Kingston for six months, then she would send him […]
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Playing with Tradition
As a homesick Humboldt State University student away from his Southern California family for the first time, Esteban Castillo called his mother for recipes to replicate the comfort foods he missed. But, he says, “trying to get recipes out of my mom was … it just didn’t work.” Like so many home cooks, she didn’t […]
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Reopening Dining … Or Not
Meredith Maier of Six Rivers Brewery had already put together a plan for her restaurant to follow not only state and OSHA guidelines, like masks for staff and tables 6 feet apart, but a set of house rules, including only admitting those 21 and over, seating at only five tables and offering counter service as […]
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A Virtual Oyster Fest
As the days grow warmer and COVID-19 lingers, bivalve enthusiasts have wondered what’s to become of the 30th annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival, née Oyster Fest. On Saturday, May 23, the answer came, at least partially, from Arcata Main Street’s Facebook page and website. The all-day seafood, beer and music binge is going virtual June […]
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Soup for the Soul
It’s a Friday afternoon, and Christine Silver is at Humboldt Soup Co. on Myrtle Avenue in Eureka getting a pot — a very big pot — of soup ready. But this one, a hot 50-liters of chicken noodle soup, isn’t going to her drive-through customers. Instead, it’s headed down the street to the Silvercrest Residence, […]
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Underdog
The Chicago dog is born of hard times. During the 1930s, a nickel “Depression dog” with mustard, onions and relish, or one that was “dragged through the garden,” the meat nearly obscured by lettuce, tomato and peppers, stretched both the coin and the stomach of Chicagoans. So maybe it’s fitting that Chicago Dog House, a […]
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Rice Sacks and Blessings
Every April the Humboldt Grange fills with music, prayer, the chanting of Buddhist monks and Lao food — tables laden with aluminum trays of fried fish, spring rolls, rice cakes and pungent salads — some of which families bring up in silver chalices as New Year’s offerings to their ancestors. But this year, under the […]
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Wolves During Wartime
Editor’s note: As we shelter in place during a global pandemic, it seems like a good time to revisit Simona Carini’s take on M.F.K. Fisher’s wartime rationing recipes and reflections, first printed here July 3, 2008. Of the books penned by legendary food writer M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992) that I have so far read, my favorite […]
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Shopping for Strangers on Instacart, Relying on Friends
Rachael Trump started delivering for Instacart in early February, when the U.S. was counting its first confirmed COVID-19 cases and weeks before Humboldt County and the state of California instituted shelter-in-place orders. “I had been looking for several months for something,” Trump says. She needed to supplement her income with something flexible that would fit […]
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The Joy of Handmade Pasta
Editor’s note: The Journal’s website is a treasure trove of recipes to explore while you shelter in place. This week we’ve plucked a Simona Carini’s simple, three-ingredient homemade pasta from the stash (May 23, 2013), as comforting to eat as it is meditative to make. In the beginning there is flour and water. Make the […]
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Taking (Some of) the Contact out of Take-out
In the Friday afternoon lull between lunch and dinner, Eduardo Lopez still has to put the phone down to help customers at Toni’s 24-hour Restaurant. “It’s enough to keep us busy,” he says. Despite the suspension of table service under the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, he says, “we’ll get our rushes around regular times.” Restaurants offering […]