Anna Mindess

BEIJING — My brush was tiny, more like something you’d use for nail polish. That was apt because I was struggling to paint the toenails of my dragon shadow puppet.

Dipping the silken brush into royal-blue ink, I tried to give its curving talons a proper pedicure.

“Wait, I thought you were all extinct ….”

It’s a frequent comment from first-time diners at Café Ohlone, but a welcome opener nonetheless at Berkeley’s first Indigenous supper club. Since Vincent Medina and partner Louis Trevino began serving pre-contact Indigenous foods on the back patio of University Press Books, the two have been feeding their patrons’ curiosity while satisfying their appetites.

When baristas hand over your low-fat latte, you probably don’t consider the paths that brought them to stand across the counter from you. But at 1951 Coffee Company, the Berkeley café that is staffed entirely by refugees, the baristas’ life journeys are actually the point...

Wahpepah grew up in Oakland amid a multitude of restaurants featuring the cuisines of many cultures, but she always wondered why there were no American-Indian restaurants that reflected her heritage. That missing piece motivated her to become an indigenous chef and the first Native-American woman to own a catering business in the Bay Area.

I've traveled the world visiting Deaf-owned restaurants from Paris to Taipei. Some of my favorites offer wood-fired Neapolitan pizza in San Francisco, Moroccan tagines in Paris, a cornucopia of crêpes in Austin and artistically foamed coffee drinks in Taipei. Each one has a story to tell...

Japanese locals will take you on customized cultural adventures for free. Why? To practice their English and chat with foreigners.

A retired college professor will steer you to a Tokyo sumo stable to watch the wrestlers train. An administrative assistant will guide you through Kyoto’s sublime gardens to a temple where thousands of crickets sing...

You won't find the usual collection of archived items in Berkeley's Aftel Archive, Lacis Museum, and Takara Sake Museum -- Do you have a friend who has spent her life collecting something unusual and gives you the honor of sharing her life's work on a private tour of her home? That is the experience of joining Mandy Aftel, one of the world's leading experts on natural fragrances...

I MUST LOOK LIKE A LUNATIC to the well-dressed people striding down a busy Taipei street at lunchtime. Brandishing a sweet potato in each hand, I approach passersby, look them in the eye, and loudly declare, “hao-chi-de di-gua”—undoubtedly butchering the phrase I just learned an hour ago, which means “delicious sweet potatoes.” ...

On a recent trip to China, I entered a modest Beijing noodle shop, but saw no English translations in evidence. Since my Chinese vocabulary consists only of ni hao (hello) and xie xie (thank you), I realized that spoken words would get me nowhere. Instead, I pointed to a picture of noodle soup on the wall and, noticing two prices, gestured to outline the shape ...

We are all born with a remarkable set of eating utensils. They are versatile, impossible to misplace, and relatively unbreakable. Millions of diners around the globe swear that neither slender sticks nor pointy metal objects are better designed to ferry food to our faces than our hands. If you’ve eaten pizza, a burger, or...

As a kid growing up in Malmö, Sweden, Birgitta Durell took knäckebröd (crispbread) for granted. These mostly rye-based crackers are eaten there daily, paired with everything from pickled herring to lingonberry jam...

Mounds of fragrant green parsley, cilantro, dill, and chives sit atop ten colorful placemats in front of ten children. The six-to-12 year olds chop the herbs just like professional chefs do—their fingers holding the herbs are carefully tucked back out of harm’s way. The insistent tap, tap, tap of their chopping supplies background percussion to the musical lilt of their cooking teacher’s voice...

Place an eggplant on a plate and the shiny purple globe freely rolls from side to side. You may have never considered the vegetable in this light, but for Hindi speakers, the phrase “thali ka baingan” (eggplant on a plate) is a disparaging put-down for someone who likewise flip-flops, shifting loyalties so easily that they cannot be trusted.

Culinary education thrives at
the California School for the Deaf. High school students dressed in chef’s whites scurry around the kitchen preparing an ambitious Modernist Caprese Salad. Whenever they struggle with the exacting techniques required, culinary arts instructor Vernon McNece patiently clarifies, demonstrates, and corrects in American Sign Language.

While growing up in Brazil, Delvira Rodrigues didn’t give much thought to the traditional puffy, cheesy rolls called pão de queijo. “I ate them everyday at breakfast and lunch with my family,” she said. “My mom and grandma are from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, which is famous for its cheese, and that’s the most important ingredient.”