Blog archive: December 2006

One word – delicious! There is maybe more luxury food in this joint than any other building in California. Here at San Francisco’s most exquisite food marketplace the emphasis is on local, seasonal and sustainable food.

This means local cheeses like mild Red Hawk from Cowgirl Creamery, seasonal treats like wild chanterelles from Far West Fungi, and sustainable staples like grass-fed bison from Big Valley Buffalo.

Lunch with my friend Madelyn was a fabulous treat… We shared Japanese-style bento boxes from Delica, enjoying the sweet hijiki, fragrant lotus and burdock roots, and creamy crab cakes.

There are wines from Napa Valley, fish from the deep blue Pacific Ocean, sourdough bread from local bakery Acme, and beautiful, fresh and local organic fruit and vegetables, including persimmons and nasturtiums.

So if you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to eat some flowers when you’re there…

www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

I got to hang out with Eric Antebi today. He’s such a nice guy, and he happens to work for a huge American non-profit organisation called the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club are all about protecting the environment, and have been lobbying government and raising public awareness about eco-issues in America since 1892. Check them out at www.sierraclub.org

Eric was particularly excited about an event he’d helped to organise last week all about the oil industry, climate change and how to make alternative fuels, well, less alternative and more just what we all use. He had practically everyone who matter to this suject in one room. Al Gore was there, the chairman of one of America’s biggest power companies was there, the guy who was President Clinton’s deputy energy chief was there, and so were a couple of major venture capitalists who invest in biofuels around the world, including India and China.

Heavyweight discussions that could save this blue/green planet.

One of the topics they discussed that piqued my interest as an organic girl was the concept that Eric coined this phrase for: “Drive Organic” The idea being, if you’re going to grow plants for fuel, let’s make them organic plants, whether that’s corn grown for plant ethanol to run in cars, or hemp grown for hemp oil to make into plastics and things.

For more information about corn ethanol for cars, have a look at www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200701/decoder.asp

And to see video footage of the event, check out:

www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/events/2006-12-14

Oh, and if you’re ever in San Francisco, check out the tea shop we went to at www.samovartea.com

Gentle reader, I’m not sure if you’re going to believe today’s blog entry, but please please rely on me to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as I have always done for you.

My friend David Normal introduced me today to a new beverage, seen hear both front and back. Ol’ Glory is stylishly designed in red, white and blue with the American Pledge of Allegiance on the back, the words ‘UNDER GOD’ capitalised.

A product of two Baby Boomer Americans in their seventies, Ol’ Glory is patriotic, cheap and effective, just as they intended. With the major claim to be ‘America’s best energy drink’ emblazoned on the front, the company have gone to every length to include only the finest ingredients, such as:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Carbonated Water and Sodium Citrate.

As a non-American, I didn’t feel qualified to try it, although I’ve heard of other beverages I might try, such as ‘Pimp Juice’, an energy drink sold exclusively in African-American neighbourhoods, and ‘Kabbalah’.

Live and learn more at www.OlGlory.com

Peet’s Coffee and Tea is a chain of coffee shops that’s not unlike Starbucks, but is smaller, more gourmet, and was founded first. The original Peet’s was a cafe in Berkeley, California, a town that’s America’s hothouse of progressive ideas and all things artistic. The original Peet’s was a place that employed a chappy who thought it would be a great idea to roll out more Peet’s across the globe. When this idea wasn’t greeted with significant amounts of enthusiasm, he left and set up his own company – Starbucks.

Peet’s then got to see Starbucks go forth and multiply while they sat around in Berkeley, drinking much nicer coffee, a lot of which is also fairtrade and organic. Then one day, it was all getting to be a bit much, and so they said to themselves, let’s do something similar, but better.

And so it is that Peet’s have begun their spread throughout California, fueled by lots of fairtade and organic teas and coffees, plus a smattering of very nice Scharffen-Berger chocolate.

Unbeknown to Peet’s, my friend Chrisray Collins (pictured) has invented a new piping hot organic beverage based on their organic coffee. Chrisray insists that his new Peppermint Coffee needs to become a staple offering of all coffee houses around the world. His secret recipe – buy a fairly traded organic coffee, then add an organic peppermint herbal tea bag. (Note the little herbal tea bag tag hanging out the cup). Et voila! Mornings have never been so perky.

I’ve just stumbled across a fantastic site www.100people.org/

Apparently, if the world was populated by 100 people:

50 would be female
50 would be male
20 would be children
and of the 80 adults,
14 would be 65 and older

There would be:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
14 people from the Western Hemisphere
13 Africans

70 nonwhites
30 whites

There would be:
31 Christians
21 Muslims
14 Hindus
6 Buddhists
1 Jew

12 would believe in other religions
16 would be unaligned with a religion

There would be:
1 with a college education
1 with a computer

18 would be unable to read

17 would speak Chinese
8 would speak Hindustani
8 would speak English
7 would speak Spanish
4 would speak Arabic
4 would speak Russian
52 would speak other languages

80 would live in substandard housing

75 people would have a supply of food and a shelter
25 would not

1 would be dying of starvation
17 would suffer from malnutrition
15 would be overweight

83 would have access to safe drinking water
17 people would have no clean safe water to drink