Taste of Asia

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be moderating a panel discussion at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum’s Taste of Asia. Kevin Blum from The City Dish, Marcia Gagliardi from tablehopper.com, Nish Nadaraja from Yelp, and Pim Techamuanvivit from Chez Pim will share their insights on how online communities have changed the landscape of the restaurant world.

It should be an interesting conversation, as yours truly comes from traditional media (those fuddy-duddy, dead-tree newspapers, magazines, and books) and is always struck speechless by the museum’s sexualized marketing of Asia and usually prefers a nice, simple, home-cooked dinner to most restaurant meals. And yes, has her own blog.

Culinary Seminars:
Saturday, April 26, 2008
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, California
$25, includes admission to all exhibits. For more information, call 415-581-3788.

BO-DE-GA: Food Choices at the Corner Store


Bodega: The Bronx

Laughs are few and far between for anyone who works in that tough corner of the food world where food security, public health, and urban development issues intersect. Fortunately, the dynamic duo of Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam have been making short, sharp, and extremely funny documentaries about shopping and eating in urban neighborhoods, including this short on bodegas, those infamous corner stores.

Dallas Penn blogs about music, sports, politics and whatever else strikes his fancy (tags include “Black Bullshit” and “Wig Owners” and “Social Upheaval”). His partner in comedy, Rafi Kam, reviews albums and writes features about topics like Baduizm, a contagious disease that strikes the nerve endings of rap artists.
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Eating Space: Food in the Open

I’ve always wondered why street food was not as popular in the US. And then I started trying to understand health codes, land use policy, business permits, tax laws, risk management briefs, and sidewalk obstruction ordinances. I soon lost my appetite. The confusion was enough to make me give up on ever enjoying hot rice cakes while sitting on a plastic stool leaned up against a park wall or discovering the best roasted yams ever at the entrance to a post office.
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