Ah, summer! I was at my parents’ house for dinner last night. My dad had barbecued wild sockeye salmon with lemon rind and dill. My mom had roasted floridor and blanco lungo squash, and poured on it a sauce made from fresh basil and homemade yogurt. As we all sat down at the patio table, [...]

Have you noticed? The walls between vegetarians and carnivores are coming down. It’s more than just an “agree to disagree” thing. They seem to be–gasp!–cooperating. I’m chalking this newfound harmony up to the local food movement. It’s a common good for anyone who cares about food, nutrition, environment or community. Whether you’re into French fries [...]

There are a few things nobody has to teach you how to do. Jumping, for one thing. As soon as a kid gets the hang of holding himself up with his legs, he starts experimenting with how high he can get them off the ground. Or smelling flowers. There’s no question that a wide-open blossom [...]

I love finding out who inspires my friends. Especially my talented friends. Especially my friends who have talents that I (emphatically) do not have. To that end, I was asking Drew where he and Annel get the inspiration for the food they make. I know that they are highly-trained cooking professionals with degreed expertise. I [...]

All year long, no matter what the weather or what holiday we just celebrated, people who come to a San Diego farmers’ market want basil. I guess it’s the part of the gig, when you live in a place where the weather is always mild. People are just going to assume that their favorite things [...]

I met Annel and Drew through our mutual love of Suzie’s Farm. Their passion for food made with love and care was starting to spread out, to insist on food grown with love and care. We’d met several times at the Ocean Beach farmers’ market, where I ran the Suzie’s Farm vendor stall. After we [...]

One of our neighbors at the Ocean Beach market is Kosta, owner of Lisko Deli. It’s a mobile grocery that brings together some of the best imported prepared foods we’ve ever seen. His signature is mile-long display of hummus in crazy-delicious flavors. Basil garlic, wasabi pea, peanut butter with coconut…no wonder his sample table gets a little [...]

Say you’re watching TV late at night, and you see a commercial for McDonald’s. Or Domino’s Pizza. Or whatever. Once you get past the images of bright, healthy people having all kinds of crazy fun together (never mind that those people clearly can’t be eating at McDonald’s very often), what do you see? You see [...]