Anna Mindess

After 14 years creating award-winning artisan chocolates, Mindy Fong, owner of Jade Chocolates, finally achieved her dream two months ago when she opened an elegant teahouse cafe on a cozy corner of San Francisco Chinatown with ample space to host brunches and afternoon teas.
The Chinatown location offers a fitting spot for Fong, who specializes in chocolate bars, bon bons and other treats which all feature Asian teas, spices, and fruit. Bon bons include flavors like Miso Caramel, Mint Ginger...

Ryoji Arakaki is ready to put away his knives and hang up his apron at Sushi California, his cozy Japanese restaurant that for 36 years has attracted a legion of loyal customers who have made it their second home. For now, the 70-year-old sushi chef hopes to find someone to buy the business, but if that doesn’t happen, he’ll have to make a tough decision, ...

Bison meatballs bathed in blueberry sauce. Roasted fiddlehead ferns. Acorn crêpes topped with maple cream. These are just a few examples of what Indigenous chefs are serving at restaurants across California. Three spots in particular are dedicated to championing Native foods and culture in the state. Their chefs cite the same formative experience: growing up wondering why every other culture had a restaurant featuring its cuisine, but seeing none that reflected their own Native foodways...

What’s growing at the corner of 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue? About 34,000 square feet of luscious lettuce, deep green arugula, rainbow chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, cilantro, parsley, fenugreek and 27 different varieties of garlic...This isn’t only a super cool farm smack dab in trendy Temescal, but the prototype of a plan to decolonize the land, pay farmers their due as health care workers, and provide nutritious food for people who have been marginalized...

Indigenous restaurant Cafe Ohlone hopes to provide a bridge between UC Berkeley’s troubling past and a better future. Passing the courtyard outside UC Berkeley’s Anthropology building, you might not see much more than a pile of craggy boulders, a stack of lumber and a mound of ground shells. But to Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, founders of Cafe Ohlone, those details are the emerging embodiment of Ohlone culture, one the region has been without for nearly two years...

Alongside a majestic orange oak tree, five figures offer sacred foods from their respective Indigenous cultures: Peruvian potatoes, Mayan corn, Ohlone acorns, and Lakota bison. In the center, a Kickapoo woman holds a basket of squash. The mural, entitled Indigenous Food Warriors, was painted by Votan and Povi of the Indigenous collective NSRGNTS. It embodies the concept behind Wahpepah’s Kitchen, the first Native American woman-owned restaurant...

The big-eyed green monster in Monster Pho’s name and logo came from owner Tee Tran’s desire to be different and appeal to kids. Back when it opened on Broadway in 2014, the Vietnamese restaurant’s family-friendly atmosphere included crayons and coloring book pages to keep little diners busy. On Feb. 2, Monster Pho will open in a much larger space, just around the corner, in Oakland’s Temescal District. And its original mascot will morph into a collection of monster-themed amusements to keep kids (and assorted adults) enthralled...

The bright red fortune cookies, dipped in Belgian chocolate, studded with sparkling gold and silver sprinkles, or stenciled with an elegant peony, are nestled in festive packages featuring red paper cut-outs of tigers to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year. These are a universe away from the fortune cookies we’ve all unwrapped at the end of a takeout meal, or handed to us with the check at virtually every Chinese restaurant.

If you visit 5 Tacos and Beers on a Monday, you’ll notice the Albany restaurant’s menu features tacos with nopales (cactus), portobello mushrooms, zucchini, corn, or other seasonal veggies. But the traditional beef, pork, fish, and chicken choices all have the day off. That’s because owner Lito Saldaña is so committed to the global “Meatless Monday” movement that he has crafted an entire vegan menu.
“I can make good plant-based tacos,” he told Nosh, “And I don’t need to mimic meat using artificial ingredients. Monday's ceviche, for example is made from jicama...

For many people, Thanksgiving is a time of great ambivalence. Much of November is a full-court press of menu planning, meal prep, and travel, but there’s also an undercurrent of unease, as we know that the once-common narrative of Pilgrims and Indigenous people living in respectful harmony is a lie. We all know that we live on land stolen through genocide and forced removal of its original residents, and yet here we have this holiday intended to celebrate this heist. “Cognitive dissonance” doesn’t even begin to cover it...

Every day, more than three billion people around the globe eat rice as part of their daily meals. While many enjoy and even revere a plain bowl of rice, celebratory gatherings may call for something special...

OUMAR DIOUF

Born in a small town in Senegal, Oumar Diouf found his love of cooking early. He was 13 when his father passed away, and he was concerned for his mother, who worked long hours at her clothing design and tailoring business to support six children...Diouf realized he could ease her burden by taking charge of the cooking, even though that got him bullied at school...

Crystal Wahpepah says her restaurant is a place to eat, learn and heal. As a little girl growing up in Oakland, Wahpepah wondered why she could see plenty of restaurants featuring cuisines of different cultures, but none representing her own Indigenous heritage. “I knew at a young age what was wrong,” she says. “They took away our food.”
She is Kickapoo and spent summers with her grandmother in Oklahoma, whom she credits with inspiring her to become a chef. ...

Still reeling from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this guide will show you how to visit (and support) New York's family-owned shops and eateries in Chinatown.

Chinatown is one of New York City’s oldest immigrant communities and chock-full of vibrant, one-of-a-kind businesses, both old and new. As you wander its streets, you will discover memorable meals, unique sweets, cultural treasures, and much more. Sprinkled among the legacy shops run by multigenerational families are ...

-- A guest post by Anna Mindess
Like many freelance writers, I lost work when the pandemic hit. My articles were cancelled or postponed. A magazine that I contributed to regularly went out of business. There was so much uncertainty. I felt useless. But today, it’s different. I feel inspired and empowered. I’ve put myself on a path to help struggling restaurants. This focus has become one of the most satisfying projects I have ever undertaken as a writer...

A sea of little bottles in aqua, pink and sea foam green line the long bar of On the Bridge in San Francisco Japantown. Chef Mitsuhiro Nakamura is proud of his ability to choose the perfect sake from his collection to match the taste of any diner. But when the shelter in place started last spring, the restaurant Nakamura and his wife Yolanda had run for 30 years immediately lost 90 percent of its business due to its location on the narrow, enclosed bridgeway...