Iso Rabins | ForageSF.com

Night Market

Jan 282011

January 28, 2011 Posted by iso at 3:26 am bacon wrapped mochi, char siu, food movement, foragesf, home made food, iso rabins, jerk chicken, pizza hacker, public works sf, ramen, san francisco, street food, underground market 1 Response »

A couple weeks ago, we had our real first Underground Market collaboration with Public Works. It went really well. Dare I say it was one of the best markets yet? Almost all the vendors sold out and over 2,700 people came throughout the day. The Public Works space is really great: two floors with enough nooks and crannies that you’re always discovering new food creations around every corner. On top of that, there were two full bars, which is of course never a bad thing. We had 60 vendors with everything from bacon wrapped mochi to brick oven pizza to jerk chicken to Vietnamese crab noodles to kombucha.

Throughout the day portion of the market, about 500 people came through, which was a good amount for the space. We had a pretty broad range of vendors, from chicken and waffles to kombucha, and everyone who came through seemed to have a good time. The space is such that less people fill it out, although the capacity is still pretty high. I left at 4 to get some last minute prep done (I made ramen with char siu for the market).

Although I also organize the market, I almost always cook something. The reason I started the market in the first place was so I could have a booth, and I’m always more happy cooking than just standing around. When I came back just before six, there was already a line wrapped down the block, and around the corner. It was great to see. It felt like the second market we did. The first market we ever threw attracted 150 people, and the second one had over 800. I never imagined it would be that popular. It was so exciting to walk out and see that many people at an event I was organizing. This felt the same way; it had that same sense of excitement. The line was there for most of the night, although it was moving pretty fast, and the market didn’t really die out until around 1am.

Music has always been something we’ve wanted to include in the market. From the first time, with 15 people sitting in a circle around an acoustic guitar player, I’ve always imagined that music was one of the things that set our market apart from a regular farmers market. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it’s been an afterthought, something we have, but is not given the attention it needs to really be a focus. Public Works handled that this time. Although it wasn’t exactly the kind of music I listen to, I thought that it gave a nice vibe to the day. It really went off just like we talked about, with chill, background music during the day that gave way to hard electronic from 12-2. We also had a smattering of acts, from a violin player to an accordion, that were playing throughout the market. It gave a nice vibe, something akin to a Parisian street fair.

Public Works is definitely somewhere we’ll be again. The guys who work there made it super easy to pull off a great market, and the space is great. We’re actually thinking about having it outside when the weather gets better, which should be a lot of fun. We would close off the street, with a beer garden, music, and lots of vendors outside.

That’s all for now. Overall I think it went great. A good first collaboration, and definitely not the last (I’m meeting with Kelly from Indiemart this week). The great thing about this kind of collaboration is the way it takes us out of our heads. Gets some fresh ideas, and exposes us to other audiences. It’s good to see so many people come out to support this kind of event.

Every vendor at the market is someone who is trying to make their passion their profession, and a market like this shows that it’s definitely possible. For those of you who came late and didn’t find too much food left, very sorry. Amazingly, almost every vendor sold out by 10pm. We actually went out to the market and bought ingredients for egg sandwiches at 11, just so there would be something left. It was amazing how much people bought. Thanks to everyone that came out, both sellers and buyers, you’re the reason it all works. For more pics from the market, check out our facebook page

The next market is Saturday Feb 5^th at SomArts, 934 Brannan, SF from 11am-11pm

Thanks

Iso Rabins

photos by Andria Lo

The Wild Kitchen in the NY Times

Jan 072011

January 7, 2011 Posted by iso at 6:35 pm iso rabins, new york times, underground dinners, wild kitchen 1 Response »

We got an article in the paper of record! Very Exciting. Check it out here http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07bcjames.html

Fish Soup and Climbing Cezanne’s Mountain

Dec 212010

December 21, 2010 Posted by iso at 6:30 pm aioli, cezanne, cooking, fish soup, fish stock, foragesf, france, iso rabins, nori, san francisco, wild kitchen, wild seaweed No Responses »

My girlfriend Valerie and I just got back from a month long trip to Europe – a land of delicious cheese and keyboards that make typing an inconceivable chore (I mean really, who would design a keyboard where you have to hit alt, command, shift, and 4 to get an @ symbol?). But, despite their lack of tech design genius (or perhaps in spite of it), I had a great time.

Climbed Sainte-Victoire, the 3,000 ft. mountain that inspired Cezanne for three hours hours one foggy night. White glistening rocks, 500 ft. drop-offs, and heavy packs illuminated by head lamps. At one point we tied ourselves together with a scarf just in case one of us was to fall. It was worth it to camp in a church at the top of the mountain; to drink, play music, and cook raclette in the fireplace.
Rented the most French apartment I’ve ever seen, complete with a tiny kitchen and the full works of Edith Piaf.
Ran from tear gas in Lyon as French students fought with the riot police. It exposed us to the French peoples’ distaste for work (the retirement age was recently pushed from 60 to 62, spurring riots that shut down highways, gas stations, airports, and trains).
Slept in the 2 ft.wide-wide hallway of an overnight train to Alba, Italy, waking up alternately by gesticulating Genovese and grandmothers that seemed to have packed for the apocalypse.
Bought our first true European truffle, and tried it on everything from mac and cheese to pizza to omelettes to pasta with béchamel (which I liked so much that I made it at the last Underground Market).
Stood under the Eiffel Tower as it began to flash, and realized how much it seems like a spaceship from that angle.
Harvested olives in Tuscany until I caught the flu, and walked leisurely like old people through the streets of Tarquenia, stopping at each shop to admire the full legs of procuitto. It was amazing to see them hand slice that stuff, pure artists).

The one thing I didn’t do was update my blog, but I did write (on real paper no less) and will try to post some of it here very soon. For now, I’m happy to be back and getting into the swing of things again.

The first order of duty was to organize two Wild Kitchen dinners, each featuring nine of my favorites dishes from Europe, with a forageSF twist. One of my favorite courses of the night was soup de poisson avec aioli maison de nori sauvage. This dish was inspired by a meal we had in Cassis (a small town in the south of France, from which the crème de’ gets its name). It was exactly what I’d been looking for since I got to Europe: a good meal, perfectly cooked, served simply.

Soupe de poisson is essentially a very flavorful fish stock, served with crostini, spicy aioli, and cheese. The secret is to get an intense rich flavor of seafood and spice. Rather than being “fishy,” it was more of round and full profile. I first imagined was just a reduction of fish stock, with the flavor concentrated by long cooking, but as we worked we discovered it needed more to get it just right.

First we experimented with a simple fish stock, which is nothing more than halibut bones, garlic, carrot, onion, celery, and bay leaf. After cooking for an hour we reduced the liquid by more than half. This gave us a good flavor, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. It tasted like fish, but didn’t have that same richness. We finally found it by adding reduced chicken stock, brandy, oyster liquor and crab “goodies.” If you don’t have those, the stock will still be good, but the fullness they add to the flavor is worth the extra work.

To top it off I made an aioli of wild nori and Sriracha. Nori is a seaweed I collect locally; its similar to the seaweed used to wrap sushi and our local variety grows abundantly up and down the coast. We put the aioli on crostini, added a side of mozzarella cheese, and that was it. A really simple course that was the most popular dish of the night.

Wild Nori Aioli

If you’ve ever made aioli before, it’s the same process, but with addition of chopped nori and Sriracha towards the end. The nori really gives a great layer to the flavor and eating seaweed always makes me feel good. I used nori that I collected during the mid summer when it’s at its peak, and preserved it by cleaning and drying it out. You should try your hand at it too, nori is a great thing to have around to put in soups, and in this case, aioli.

-2 egg yolks

-1 qt. blend oil (a blend of olive and canola) or canola oil

(Pure olive oil has too strong of a taste for aioli.)

-Sriracha hot sauce

-2 cups dried nori (preferably foraged yourself, because its so fun, but don’t feel bad about buying pre-made sheets)

-1/2 clove garlic

-2 tsp. Dijon mustard

-4 tbsp. lemon juice

-Salt/pepper to taste

Pulse eggs, minced garlic, and lemon juice in food processor.
Add the oil, a drop at a time until you have an emulsion, and then add the rest of your oil in a slow but steady stream. You know you’re done when your aioli ceases to be liquid eggs, and thickens to become lovely silky mayo.
Add nori, and Sriracha, and pulse to incorporate. Aioli is really a matter of personal taste, so if you feel it’s too thick, add a drop or two of water, not sharp enough, add some more lemon, and of course salt and pepper to taste…feel free to experiment.

Simple Fish Soup

This is essentially a really rich fish stock, and goes amazingly well with the spicy aioli. And it’s a fun dish to serve and eat: first, you bring out three bowls containing the crostini, aioli, and cheese as well as the pot of the fish stock. Spread aioli on top of three crostini and sprinkle some cheese on top. Lay these pieces in a bowl and ladle fish stock over it until it slightly covers the bread, then eat by spooning the soaked bread in your mouth. Bon appétit!

-5 lb. halibut bones (or other non-oily white fish such as haddock, hake, or sole). Have your fish guy cut them into pieces about the size of your hand.

-1 lb. carrot

-1 lb. celery

-2 lb. onion

-1/2 lb. fennel

-1/2 cup soy sauce

-1 1/2 cups white wine

-1/2 cup brandy

-2 gal chicken stock

-1 bay leaf

-Salt and pepper to taste

- 3 tbsp crab “goodies” (brains and organs from inside a cooked crab)

-1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Add fish bones to a oiled stockpot over medium high, cook about 15 minutes until caramelized.
Add rough chopped veggies, brandy, wine, chicken stock, bay leaf, and soy and bring to a boil.
Turn down to a simmer as soon as it boils and cook on low heat for 4 hours.
You’ll know its done when you taste the rich flavors of the stocks coming together. Strain everything through a cheesecloth lined strainer.
Return the soup to the pot and cook it over medium-high heat until it has reduced by half, about an hour.
Serve with sides of crostini, aioli, and mozzarella cheese. You can’t miss with these flavors.

So the trip was great! We ate good food, met good people, and had some adventures, but it’s nice to be back.

Iso

Recipes by Iso Rabins and Jordan Grosser

photos by Valerie Luu

San Jose Market, or How the health department showed up (again)

Sep 202010

September 20, 2010 Posted by iso at 6:02 pm 01sj, food, foragesf, health department, iso rabins, law, san francisco, san jose, underground market, zero one No Responses »

This past Friday we had our first Underground Market in San Jose. At 5:10, 10 minutes after the market was scheduled to open, I was standing in a circle with a San Jose police sergeant, health inspector, and the fire marshal. The three people I would least like to be talking to before a market of un-certified foods.

We had made the trek down to the South Bay for the 01SF biennial festival in San Jose, a festival that celebrates art whose tagline is “Build your own world.” From what I saw between meetings with the health folks, it was actually a pretty cool festival. However, it felt like a bad idea from the beginning. Usually we have our market in an enclosed space, or in an out of the way parking lot. We organize the market as a private club, which is not open to the public, so has been able to avoid government scrutiny, but I’ve always felt that they really don’t want to see it in the open. To have the market in the middle of a city funded festival that the health, police, and fire departments were sure to attend, seemed a bit fool hardy (as my grandmother would say). We have worked it out with the SF health department, but had no idea what the San Jose folks would think. To make sure it was legit, I asked the Zero One folks to probe the health department about the market weeks in advance, to see how they would feel about an event like ours. I was told that they were amenable, if not necessarily comfortable.

Back to the parking lot. It was us, the health, fire, and police departments, and the Zero One organizers standing in a circle. The health and fire inspectors detailing why we were going to get shut down, the Zero One organizers suddenly explaining to us that they had contacted the health department, and they had been told that a market like ours would definitely be shut down! They had known all along, and instead of letting us know, they had forgot to mention that little point. I have not been that mad in a long time. Suddenly they were acting like we had just shown up, without any partnership with them, to put on the market.

I was sure the market was over. The conclusion of our talk was a laundry list of the laws we had violated, and an explanation that the next step would be for the inspectors to go around and shut down the vendors one by one. They explained to me that all 29 vendors would have to 1. Go home, wasting all the food they had made 2. Those that had produced their food commercially (about 3 amongst the lot) could buy them for an intensely inflated fee. The idea of this market is to give a chance to people who are just starting out. To lower the bar of entry in a way. This would have killed the chances of many of the vendors there if it had been shut down.

As we started to accept this as our horrible fate, the health inspector made a phone call and the other person at the end of the line said it would be okay to let the market carry on. With one phone call, the issue quickly went away, as if there was no threat to the market to begin with. We had to give assurance that the market was only one day, and that everyone who entered got a wristband, but that was about it. The health and inspectors still inspected vendors, but it was more a friendly attempt to do the best they could with what they had, and no one had to leave. The inspector went booth by booth, outlining ways vendors could hew closer to health department regulations, which we try to do as much as possible.

I don’t know who this faceless person on the other side of the phone was. One of our vendors suspects that San Jose city lawyers recommended they leave it open less they open themselves up to a lawsuit. A cop who was standing near by told us he thought the whole thing was a publicity stunt to amp up Zero One. I heard a rumor that a channel 5 reporter was taking the angle that the cultural commission had pushed our market as an event that they knew would get shut down, as a way to make the city look bad, although I never saw the story. To be honest I’m not sure what happened. Maybe San Jose didn’t to shut down an event they allow in SF. Maybe somebody knew somebody, maybe we’ll never know. (if you do know for some reason, please pass it along)

In the end it worked out. The market happened. It started three hours late, but about 1,200 people came. What’s so amazing to me about this experience is the clear line it drew of the way bureaucracy works. Everything the health inspector told us before that phone call was legit. She detailed the law, and why and where we had broken it. Then she called someone, and the law changed. Which is great. I think the law should change – if an adult chooses of their own free will to eat food that was made in someone else’s home they should be able to. As it stands now, the government doesn’t agree. That night, someone decided that they did. Every time we succeed putting this market on we set more of a precedent. A precedent that states that food made at home is just as safe as food made in a commercial kitchen. That stainless steel and walk in freezers don’t make food safe, but rather the care of person producing it.

Eat Real And Purslane

Sep 092010

September 9, 2010 Posted by iso at 1:41 am east bay, eat real festival, heirloom organics, iso rabins, jack london square, oakland, purslane, recipes, wild foraged No Responses »

As a chef, it’s hard to cooking something you don’t like eating. It sucks in fact. You want to be excited about what you’re serving, and when you just can’t quite wrap your lips around a certain ingredient, it’s hard to love your dish. You always have to taste your dish, and you don’t like the taste of a certain ingredient, it’s difficult to do. That said, people do it every day. There are legions of vegetarians working on meat-heavy menus, broccoli haters that need to add that dreaded vegetable to their dishes. Despite our own culinary biases, we still need to make it work because we know (at least intellectually) that people have different tastes.

For me, that ingredient is purslane. Purslane, known to botanists as Portulaca oleracea, is a native of the old world that has become naturalized in the U.S. Many consider it a weed (like most wild foods), but it is very high in Vitamin C and Omega 3’s (probably what gives it it’s slimy taste).

Although I haven’t seen it in SF, this wild edible is abundant up in Northern California. It looks beautiful in salads – I’ve seen it prepared picked and thrown into salads, as well as sautéed, and people seem to really like it. However, I just can’t get myself to like it. I want to like it. To me, it tastes like okra, which is another plant I’ve never loved. It’s the slime that gets me. Not to put off your stomach (because, believe it or not, this post will include a recipe), it feels like someone spit in my mouth. People say it’s because I haven’t had it cooked correctly, which might be true, but as of now, I’m not a fan. Sure, you can fry it, but that seems like a cop out (although I did do that in one of the dishes I prepared for the Eat Real Festival last weekend).

Held at Jack London Square at the end of August, the Eat Real Festival is a three-day food fest that features chefs, farmers, artisans and street food and really great presentations on everything from sourdough bread baking to animal butchering. If you haven’t gone, you should. It’s a lot of fun, and they really seem to have gotten it down this year. This was my second time at Eat Real –a year ago I sold sea beans I had foraged up north (or more correctly, gave away samples, people didn’t really know what they were). It was really great for me, my first time really getting forageSF out into the public, which gave me an amazing amount of exposure.

This time around I was doing something a little different. It was a program called The Urban Farmstand. The idea was to partner a chef with a farm, the chef would use the farms make a dish or two, and the farm would sell the produce. Cool idea, needs a bit of tweaking if they’re going to do it next year, but overall a good thing. I like the way it shows people what can be done with the raw ingredients that are being sold right next-door. I think the signage they had was confusing. Although we were all independent vendors, the signs made it seem like we were associated with eat real. I had several people come up to me and ask if we were doing a cooking demo. Overall good though, and as someone who organized events myself, I was impressed, especially by the workshops and demos, which were in large part organized by my very own girlfriend, one ms. Valerie Luu. I partnered with Heirloom Organics, who can be found at the Ferry Building Market as well as other farmers markets. “WAIT,” you say, “Aren’t you a forager, you shouldn’t be getting anything from a farm?!”

Well, that’s where purslane comes in.

There are several wild veggies that grow on farmland, without any help from the farmer (and often in spite of their ideas for the land), and purslane is one of them. It moved in a couple years ago at Heirloom, and now they have hundreds of pounds each year. With this, I talked to Grant from Heirloom and decided that purlsane was going to be wild ingredient. I also used Heirloom Organics blue potatoes, salad greens, broccoli, red, gold, and chioggia beets, and baby corn (which is just corn picked when its small).

I made two dishes: one was a salad with spring greens, a duck gelee vinaigrette (gelee is what you have left over after making duck confit, a good way to think about it is as essence of duck), It’s a gelatin that has this great savory, salty flavor that’s amazing in dressings, or even on its own, pickled, as well as raw shaved, golden, red and chioggia beets, and the afore mentioned cheat, fried purslane. This was a nice dish (if I do say so myself). The raw beets paired really nicely with the tart pickles, and the duck pulled it all together. The sad fact is that people don’t really want to eat salads at street food events though, so we didn’t sell too much.

The second dish I did was duck confit and duck fat fried blue potatoes, with sautéed purslane, broccoli, and baby corn. People seemed to respond well to this. My idea was to cover up the sliminess of the purslane as much as possible with the savory duck, starchy potatoes, and finally, the crisp baby corn (which I blanched quickly to give it some tenderness).

So overall a good weekend. Too much prep for too little sales, but I learned a few things, which are:

simple is best at street food events
you can’t really go wrong with duck confit
duck gelee is a wonder ingredient on par with anchovies for adding flavor

Here’s the recipe for the duck dish I did, hope you like it. The hardest part is making the duck confit, but you’ll be well rewarded:

You’ll need:

-1 lb blue potatoes

-1 cup duck confit, picked from the bone (here’s a good easy recipe for duck confit. Takes some time, but its worth it. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Duck-Confit-102313)

-1 lb broccoli rabe

-1/2 lb purslane (you can find this at the farmers market)

-3 ears baby corn (heirloom is the only place I’ve ever seen this fresh, they’re at the ferry building farmers market)

-1 sprig thyme

-1/2 lb heirloom tomatoes

Get two pots of boiling water going, well salted (like the sea), as well as two bowls filled with ice water (also salted)
Scrub the potatoes, prepare the broccoli, and shuck the corn
When the water boils, throw your potatoes in one until nearly cooked through (about 10 minutes for the small ones), and throw your corn into the other.
Mince garlic and thyme, dice tomatoes
After about 3 minutes, remove corn with a slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Repeat for broccoli, cooking until just under done, 4 minutes or so.
When potatoes are done, put them in the second bowl of ice water
Quarter potatoes, dry other ingredients
Heat large sauté pan to medium high with reserved duck fat from confit
Fry potatoes until they start to brown, add garlic and thyme, add purslane, cook 4 minutes, add broccoli, cook 3 minutes, adding oil as needed. (If it looks like your garlic is about to burn, you can throw in a small squirt of water to cool down the pan). Salt and pepper to taste. That’s about it. Plate then garnish with tomatoes and corn on the side, feeds four or so.

Pics from our last dinner

Sep 042010

September 4, 2010 Posted by iso at 7:44 pm andria low, dining, food, food movement, foragesf, guerilla dining, iso rabins, san francisco, underground dinner, underground restaurant, wild kitchen No Responses »

Hey all

This last week we did three wild kitchen dinners in a row. Was fun, and really exhausting. I love cooking, and being able to do it on that scale was a good time. We’re going to be doing at least 3 more this month, look out for the menu in about a week. We’re also going to be offering ten $40 tickets per meal (in addition to the the 55 $80 tickets). I like the idea of the dinners being more accessible, but I couldn’t pay the rent, and get the quality of food I serve, if they were all that price. If you can afford the $80 ticket, please leave the lower priced seats for those who can’t. I will be announcing the sale of these lower cost tickets on twitter a few days before the general tickets go on sale, so if you’re not already, follow us (that phrase has always stuck me as strange, but what else is there…twitter us….join us….). Anyway, onto the pics! These were taken by one ms. Andria Lo, I really like her style. If you want to check out the next dinner, please sign up for our email list in the “subscribe” box at foragesf.com

A great night.

Aug 112010

August 11, 2010 Posted by iso at 7:03 pm beat beat whisper, cheap, east bay underground market, eat real, events, food, food fest, food movement, foragesf, iso rabins, oakland, san francisco, street food No Responses »

The East Bay Underground Market was a bit of an experiment. Would it work in the East Bay? Would it work outside? What did we have to do differently? Would the fire marshall show up because it was outside? Would people show up? No way to know really.

I have to say that I had the most fun this market. It was really nice to be outside, both for the weather, and for the fact that it gave the market a much more open feel (I suppose thats a pretty obvious observation). I really like SomArts, but it can get a bit clausterphobic. We had about 2000 people through the course of the night, but it never got too full that we had to stop letting people in.

I met a mushroom forager from Shasta (Kevin), who, like most mushroom foragers, was a bit crazy in all the best ways. He came down to the city with a backpack full of morels, which I promptly bought (and which you’ll taste in this upcoming Wild Kitchen dinner), with a promise that I could visit his farm sometime in the future.

Pizza Lovers

I found out that one of my vendors is actually a lawyer who specializes in…I believe she said it’s called high risk legal strategy, and since I happen to run my life in a particularity high risk legal way, she’s definitely a good person to know. Hopefully we’re going to be working together to help some of the vendors jump through some hoops towards legitimacy, a hard process indeed.

We got Beat Beat Whisper to come back, this great Oakland based sibling duo that played at the first two SF Underground Markets. I love their music, makes me happy every time I hear it (I’m actually listening to it as I write). They’re going to be playing at Eat Real (another great Oakland festival you should check out), at the end of the month, they are really not to be missed.

We learned a lot at this market. About the OPD, generators (who knew renting a generator for one day could cost $3000?), porto-potty placment, spider boxes (I’ll leave it up to you to imagine, although the reality is less cool than your imagination I can assure you ((hint: it has less to do with spiders, and more to do with power)). We had some great help from one ms. Consuelo Jacobs, who I met a couple months ago, and for some reason dedicates fully too much of her time to helping make the market amazing, which is very much appreciated. We had some great vendors this time. We put out the call a couple months ago for East Bay Vendors, and got a pretty good response. Out of the 130 or so that signed up online, about 35 showed up for sample day (this is about par for the course, which Im always surprised by, but its a good way to see who is serious), of which we accepted 30. Overall we had 55 vendors, so about half East Bay, not bad for a first attempt….enough business talk, onto the food!

Really great stuff, of which my words won’t do justice, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Thanks to everyone that came, vendor and customer alike, it was a really great night.

Photos by Jon Wollenhaupt

Pics from July Wild Kitchen Dinners

Jul 272010

July 27, 2010 Posted by iso at 9:36 pm california, cooking, forage san francisco, foragesf, iso rabins, locavore, pickleweed, san francisco, underground dinner, wild kitchen No Responses »

Here are our favorite pics from our last couple Wild Kitchen dinners by our amazing photographer Robin Jolin (robinjolin.com), who always makes the food look even more delicious than in real life. This dinner was eight courses, and featured a lot of great summer fruit, as well as some forageables from the coast and inland. Thanks to all the people who came, it was a great crowd, and especially to the people who bartered such great stuff. Remember, we’re always looking for people to barter skills, kitchen equipment, massages and the like. If you havnt checked them out yet, and want to get emailed when they’re happening, sign up in the subscribe box on the homepage at foragesf.com.

Thanks

Iso

July Market-a review

Jul 272010

July 27, 2010 Posted by iso at 1:33 am food, foraged food, foragesf, iso rabins, san francisco, sf underground market, street food No Responses »

The market went great, the best so far from our viewpoint. Most of the vendors sold out by the end of the night, with some done within a couple hours of opening. Thanks to everyone who showed up, the market had a really nice vibe this time. We were all super relaxed thanks to all the staff and volunteers we had (who were great), and people really seemed to be having a good time. We had a DJ this time, which changed the feel of the place a bit, but it was fun once you got used to it (I even saw an impromptu dance party start up as the night waned). We tried something new (at least for the market), a plate of local yellowtail sashimi with tempura fried sea beans and a ginger ponzu, sold really well.

We tried some new things this time around, some were successful, some not so much:

1. Pre-sale tickets: In an effort to shorten the lines, we sold pre-market tickets through eventbrite. The idea was that people who really couldn’t stand the wait could get in a shorter line. Unfortunately it didn’t work quite as planned. The first problem is that the market filled up within an hour of opening (the night section, day was very steady with no line), so whether you had a ticket or not, the line was the same length. Also, the service charge on the tickets was crazy (at least percentage wise), $1 for a $5 ticket. Not the most money in the world, but that’s coming dangerously close to Ticketmaster service fees. If we do sell tickets again, we’re going to have to think of another way to deal with creating a separate “ticket holders” line, but for the time being, I think the idea is on hold.

2. Hiring people: We hired people this time! If you were wondering where your extra $3 went, it went into the pockets of some very nice trash monitors, residents of our fair city. We had some trouble with trash separation at the last market, which ended up costing us hours of digging elbow deep in piles of compost, and still we got fined for unsorted trash. Not this time. It went smooth, smooth, smooth.

3. Day market: We really pushed the day market this month by offering a lower entrance fee, as well as mentioning every chance we got. It worked! We had 1,100 people come through from 11am-4pm, up from 300 last month. This was really satisfying for me. It was an idea I had, splitting it up so different kind of folks could feel comfortable (people with strollers and those who wanted to take stuff home etc.) Last month it was a bit of a failure since there were so few people during the day, which resulted in a couple vendors getting pretty pissed at me, so it was nice to see the day vendors selling out towards the end of the shift this time around.

4. $1 for bringing your own plate: We had the idea offering people a buck off for bringing their own plate and silverware in order to cut down on waste. It didn’t go so well. With the constant rotation of volunteers at the door throughout the day (who were all great by the by), I neglected to let everyone know about this little fact, so what ended up happening was people came to the door with their own plate, and were given a blank stare. This was my bad. I imagine I would have been pissed, so if that happened to you, I’m very sorry. On a brighter note, all the vendors brought compostable plates and utensils, so thanks! We’re going to try it again. This time I’ll be sure to let volunteers know.

Ideas for next time:

1. Vendors should bring more food. It’s a hard thing to gauge. One stand might sell 150 sandwiches, and one might sell 50, but definitely something we should think about.

2. Hmm, lots of others will spring up no doubt, now I’m getting hungry, so gotta go. If you’ve got suggestions or comments, good or bad, let us know, we’re always looking to make it a better market.

Thanks for coming!

Iso

Out of Chicago and into hell

Jul 052010

July 5, 2010 Posted by iso at 10:08 pm ava chin, edible plants, feral kevin, foragesf, iso rabins, kevin feinstein, milk weed, nyc, san francisco, taste of chicago, time magazine, travel, wild food No Responses »

Hello. Chicago was good. Mainly because I had never really been there before. That sounds negative but isn’t. I would have liked more time in Chicago, to really check it out. I spent most of my time foraging (more on that later) and at the taste of Chicago. The Taste is a festival put on for the last 30 years in Chicago that means to….Im not honestly sure what it means to do. It certainly doesn’t mean to show the people of Chicago anything interesting about food. Think 40 vendors all selling the leftovers from the Des Moines county fair, and you get an idea of the culinary virtue that is The Taste. Perhaps unfair ( I did have grilled turkey ribs that weren’t too bad), but pretty apt. Its interesting to me that you would put on an event focused on food, and have so little diversity. Or maybe I’ve just become a food snob in these past years. Ok, onto the interesting stuff….

There were an amazing amount of new (to me) plants in Chicago’s parks. I grew up in VT, so many of the plants ( like milkweed, pictured here)

you can eat the unopened flower buds like broccoli,

It was great to walk around with Sunny, that I saw in Chicago we had back home, but this time I saw them with new eyes. I really only started foraging when I got to SF, so it was really enlightening to learn from Sunny who’s knowledge of wild foods definitely surpasses my own (Sunny Savage has a TV show on the Veria network about wild food. She’s the reason I was in Chicago, to help her forage and cook). Mine is very SF specific, so I was lost in this new environment.

Overall a good trip, Im in NYC now (where it is 96 degrees,hence the “hell” in the title), but will be back in SF on the 7th. We just posted some new wild food walks on foragesf.com, and look out for an email about some upcoming dinners we’re doing mid July.

Also….we’re starting the CSF back up! A friend of mine, Kevin Feinstein, who is going to be managing the workings of it in the months to come, so look out for an email about that too.

Well I’m off to meet Ava Chin, a NYC based forager, who writes a column for the NY times.

Also….Just got interviewed for a Times magazine article, so look out for that! Very Exciting. Ok, enough talk.

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