Food Cart Extravaganza

The Food Carts were amazing last night, as they always are. What was really great was that they were all there, lined up, so you could walk down the row and see what each one does. My mom used to do a food booth at the 4th of July parade after party in the park and it was always a blast! We would hang out and sell the food that we had. We would trade with our neighbors for whatever they were selling. It was fun. The same thing was going on last night! Cart people were trading food and people were browsing and sharing their food with each other so that everybody could taste everything. I think I should open a cart. How about the Chili Chick or Slow Overalls Soul Food? YUM!

Boyfriend and I had the Sexy Soup Lady soup which was carrot, ginger, coconut DELICIOUS! (and gluten free). And I have to say, the sexy soup lady is pretty sexy. The soup came with a piece of baguette, which boyfriend told me was divine dipped in the soup with soup carefully spooned on top of it.

We next had the Magic Curry Kart chicken curry. It was also delicious, but a bell pepper is about the spiciest thing I can handle, and the curry definitely has a kick to it. But it was delicious, and he cooks it right there in front of you! To get the curry is a little more involved than the other carts because of the actual cooking. You write your name on a list and indicate if you would like tofu or chicken, then he cooks up large batches and attempts to call the names out. I say attempts because Señor Curry appears to be a man of few words. I mean, he barely batted an eye when a very pretty girl came and attempted to chat him up a bit. So you better be standing close by to hear him call your order!

Although they looked delicious, we are saving our sampling of the other carts for another day. We have already been to the Crème Brûlée Cart. It is amazing, but we have still to hit up several of the dessert carts. I bake at home like it is my job, so we have to plan ahead on those ones.

The event was for the bike coalition, and for a second I thought I was back in Eugene. Randoms kept coming over to chat with us, complete strangers, about Woodstock and the food among other things. One of the things I really miss about Eugene is that I never felt scared or intimidated by the people who were prone to coming and talking to me. In the city, especially in my neighborhood, it is entirely possible that the crazy who approaches might pull a knife or something worse. This event had the non-intimidating Eugene vibe.

I have a confession to make. I do not have a bike. Well I have a bike, it’s a yellow beach cruiser with a big basket, and currently is in a storage unit in the meth capital of the US in the Great State of Oregon. So it is needless to say that I am not a member of the bike coalition. The event was pretty fun though, and they get discounts on all kinds of useful things, and they have some kick ass sweatshirts. I would encourage those of you who have the thigh strength to bike the hills of San Fran to check it out.

A final thought: I am pretty sure that the crème brûlée guy and the magic curry guy are related.

!Viajamos!

As it turns out, boyfriend and I have been a little lame on the travel plans as of late. We waited too long to purchase our plane tickets to Alaska, and they now cost over $1700 for a pair of round trip tickets. This month, rather than travel elsewhere we decided to make the best of our misfortune and ‘travel’ our own city. (I told him this and he said it was called a staycation. I don’t know if I like that word.)

Despite the fact that Boyfriend grew up literally down the street from where we currently live (5 blocks), and I grew up about 30 min north, neither of us have spent much time here since we have been 21 – or 18 for that matter because we went away to college. I used to be cool and come into “the city” in high school, but I have found being a little bit older has its advantages in my city adventures, an not just at the bars. Shop owners follow me around far less frequently to check if I’m shoplifting, I can sample all I want and the store owners rarely get mad, and I get asked to leave and come back with a parent or guardian very infrequently.

So what is on the agenda? This week we will be going to:

Apparently all of the SF Food Carts are convening at an event at 7th and Mission today (Wednesday). I love food carts!

The California Academy of Sciences (formerly the Steinhart Aquarium) Thursday Nightlife event featuring DJs Alexander Frederick and Eli Glad and the SF Neighborhood Fashion Contest with 7x7 Magazine.

Friday we will be hitting up the pie lady at 17th and Folsom (I think those are the cross streets) and going out dancing in our own neck of the woods, the Mission.

Saturday boyfriend has to work, so I will be taking a break from our explorations to return to the Farmette and help Mom with the harvest.

But we will return to the call of the wild city on Sunday to attend the Giants game at SBC/PacBell/AT&T or whatever it calls itself these days Park. After all as that guy that Boyfriend is friends with says “The Giants are playing relevant baseball. Incredible!”

Garden Updates

To Whom it May Concern:

Dear Starbucks;

I have a few suggestions that I believe would greatly improve not only on the quality if service you provide to your customers, and also increase your profits significantly.

Firstly I would like to congratulate you on the prime placement of your stores on or near many of the campuses. These locations are very convenient for the faculty and staff who are often required to work long hours. I would however, like to point out the gross lack of Starbucks near Public Hospital. The Faculty and staff at this location are arguably some of the hardest working in the system. They are constantly dealing with high risk and vulnerable populations. The work is both physically and emotionally draining. A Starbucks nearby would greatly boost moral and provide an oasis for these hard workers.

Starbucks is known for their superb and unique coffee beverages. They become particularly creative around the holidays. Along with adding a new Starbucks location to the Public Hospital campus, I would also like to encourage you to keep the holiday beverages available year round. I think that the pumpkin spice in particular would be hugely popular in summer frappiccinos.

By acting on these small tips, I believe that Starbucks could increase profits tremendously.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Slowly Filling Overalls

A Circle Has No Beginning

I am starting a new project at work where I will be working to make our hospital the first public hospital to have all local sustainably grown food in the cafeteria as well as for patient food. Extras from the gardens will also be used to supplement the food bank, which had suffered during the economic downturn. I will also be helping to start a farmers market at the hospital, promote CSA boxes, and talk hospital neighbors into letting www.MyFarm.com plant organic gardens in their yards to provide food to the hospital and community.
I am super excited about this new project. It is the kind of job I applied for but didn’t get. It has the infrastructure and support actually make change! Despite my enthusiasm for this project, as it goes forward I am face with some of the same questions that keep coming up as I begin to choose a career. Where, at what level, and how should these kinds of projects begin? Is it more important to make sure that everybody has food or that the food everybody has is healthy? I could buy 15 packs of ramen or an organic heirloom tomato. The ramen is highly processed, simple carbohydrates and has high levels of sodium. It lacks many nutrients and vitamins. It also is enough food for a meal for about 15 people. The tomato is packed with vitamins and nutrients and complex sugars, but would only feed one person, maybe. Which of these is better? It is like the endless chicken and egg question.
One of the most commonly treated problems in the patients that come to this hospital is diabetes, or rather complication that arise from, cause, and/or accompany diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes occurs when the body either becomes resistant to insulin, which delivers food in the form of glucose from the blood to the cells, or when the body does not produce enough insulin. While there are many factors that contribute to the development of diabetes such as genetics, and age, the Mayo Clinic Website (www.mayoclinic.com) identifies obesity as a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. “Being overweight is a primary risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The more fatty tissue you have, the more resistant your cells become to insulin.” The risks involved with an unhealthy diet are huge, but so to are those related to having no food, even if the food is of poor quality. Ideally high quality food would be available to everybody. I suppose that the natural foods project is reaching for this goal in what I am hoping to make an efficient and effective way.
There are more problems related to the idea of everybody eating fresh locally grown natural foods, mainly compliance. I love vegetables and eat them whenever possible, but I don’t like, and will not eat zucchini no matter how you cook it. It has a gross texture and smell and taste (in my humble opinion). At this hospital we are dealing with a huge immigrant population, as well as populations of people who have grown up eating what we have now determined to be very unhealthy processed foods. With some exceptions, tastes are acquired. They develop over a lifetime. My favorite foods are the ones that my mom gave me growing up (with exception of zucchini). Locally grown food means that the food, or rather the plant, thrives in this region and climate, which is unique. Foods that may be culturally significant for some people may not be available here; and foods that are available may taste like zucchini to some people. Other dilemmas in compliance include preparation time, which is longer that the wait in line at a fast food restaurant.
I recently read a New York Times article that quoted Adam Drewnowski on the bigger problems involved in food security. Drewnowski says “When you suggest that people buy rice, pasta, and beans, you presuppose that they have resources for capital investment for future meals, a kitchen, pots, pans, utensils, gas, electricity, a refrigerator, a home with rent paid, the time to cook...” Food is only part of the problem for people who don’t have any.
Messing with people’s food can go terribly wrong. With all of the cultural, language, and socioeconomic barriers standing in the way of easy communication, there is a large potential for misinterpretation. For example, it can be very confusing whether breastfeeding or baby formula is better for a baby. I have resources at my fingertips that can answer this question for me, but without these resources and with company advertisements telling me how fabulous their product is, it is easy to see how different conclusions can be reached. I fear the same type of effect with the natural foods program. While we want to convey the message of “natural, local, sustainable foods whenever possible” it could be interpreted at “local, organic, sustainable foods or nothing.”

It is my hope that the natural, local, sustainable, foods project is a huge success and emulated by public and private businesses including hospitals all over the country. I trust that my struggle, to determine which is the most important battle to fight first, is at least, enlightened as I work with more experienced public servants and community members.

Tweet Tweet

Recently my boyfriend’s mother came for a work related visit. When we had dinner, we inevitably started talking about twitter seeing as how that is what I spend a large portion of my day doing. Typical of parent aged people, she understood the basic concept of it being this new way of connecting with people but questioned why we need it and what exactly it was (I think she heard about it at her book club…). I gave examples of incredible meetings that could be held by the 100k members of the California Medical Association that would be near impossible in person. I also told her how I liked that I had the ability to follow intelligent people with whom I shared interests and that they would post articles that I would like to read, and rather than hearing about the previous evenings drunken shenanigans form my college friends on facebook I could learn about colony collapse, or palm oil, or how to knit a pocket sized fish.

As the conversation turned away from things I am interested and back to political jokes and high scoring scrabble words, I began to think more about why I have suddenly become practically obsessed with twitter. Like most people I spend my entire day in a cubicle. The walls aren’t very high or sound proof, so I also spend a lot of time ignoring what is going on around me. I love sending emails and getting electronic signatures because it is fast and efficient, but I don’t interact with anybody all day. I forget that there is a world outside of my little desk area. Twitter is a little reminder that there are other people in the world doing things that are not filling out forms at grants.gov.

Blah blah blah everybody says this, but while pondering the meaning of life – perdon – the meaning of twitter, I also realized that it kind of keeps me in check mentally. This morning I got a ride to work and on the way I pointed out the window and said ‘see, that is where my community garden is going to be.’ I didn’t realize that I had never bounced this far fetched idea off of anybody. With no human contact for 9 hours a day 5 days a week my mind wanders out of control. Before I know it I am designing entire farms, bridesmaid dresses, Obama interviews. I am planning how to decorate the walls in my Argentina apartment and what veggies I will grow outside my house on the Parisian countryside. I have traded out all of the hospital scrubs for the Uniform Project girls black dress, and think about how I would far prefer a flying carpet to a broomstick even if they do break the law about bewitching muggle artifacts. I am not saying that any of these things are bad. I think that imagination is fabulous; the problem is I have such thorough conversations with myself in my head while im sitting alone in my cubicle, that 2 things happen. 1) I continue the conversation aloud when I get home to the utter confusion of the listening party, or 2) I think that I have had feedback and that my ideas have been checked and validated. For me, Twitter provides little blurbs of reason. It gives me somebody to kind of talk to and bounce ideas off of.