Anna Mindess

Lunar New Year begins on January 22, but preparations are already underway at the 65-year-old Oakland Fortune Factory, one of the last bakeries that still makes these crisp cookies one at a time, using a traditional recipe that’s vegan and preservative-free.
The mother-daughter team of Jiamin and Alicia Wong took over the bakery in 2015. Jiamin supervises the bakery workers who form each cookie by hand and insert the fortunes. Alicia and husband Alex focus on custom orders...The Lunar New Year holiday is important to Alicia Wong. “It’s the only holiday I feel is inclusive,” she says...

No meal at Cafe Ohlone begins without an expression of gratitude to the elders who have endured times of great hardship but kept their culture alive to pass on to succeeding generations. Although Vincent Medina’s heartfelt words usually refer to his Ohlone ancestors, on a recent Friday, they also applied to Cafe Ohlone’s honored guests, a dozen diners from two East Bay organizations that serve Korean seniors.

Three languages intertwined during the evening’s program, with Medina greeting the assembled group in Chochenyo, Korean and English...

Sitting at the bar of Juanita and Maude, we are entranced by bartender Julia Drazic, who with balletic grace, pours, shakes, stirs and twirls, almost dancing with various bottles and silver shakers as she creates the alcoholic cocktails ordered by the other guests. We ask for the two zero ABV drinks that are currently on the menu, one called Clark Kent (strawberry, Szechuan, dandelion, clove) and another called Keyser Söze (passionfruit, lime zest, black tea, mint). As Drazic serves our elegant drinks, we appreciate the classy presentation, with just-snipped mint and a tiny marigold...

If you love the creamy unctuousness of Brie, you are not alone. The cheese is so popular that it has a French museum dedicated to it. The cozy little Maison du Brie de Meaux is only a 40-minute train ride from Paris, located in Meaux, a town famous for the cheese.
Brie was reportedly a favorite of Charlemagne and its irresistible charms seemed to seal the fate of King Louis XVI in 1791 when he stopped in Varennes on his hurried exit from Paris to elude the revolutionaries...

Tyrosemiophilia is a mouthful to pronounce. Breaking it down, the meaning is still murky: in ancient Greek, tyro means cheese, semio is sign or label, and philos is love. The term does not refer to savoring rich, creamy cheese. Rather, it defines a surprisingly popular hobby: collecting the cheese labels that have been affixed to French Camembert’s round wooden boxes for over 100 years. Each label is a miniature work of art....

On Sept. 1, after two and half years of anticipation, a brilliant blue sky shone over Cafe Ohlone’s first public meal in its new home on the patio of the Phoebe Hearst Museum at UC Berkeley. Blazing sunshine warmed custom-made redwood tables and sparkled off new drinking glasses emblazoned with the image of an acorn between a crow and a quail, the two animals that respectively represent the spirits of co-owners Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino....

When chocolatier Wendy Lieu decided she wanted to pay homage to the Mid-Autumn Festival, she knew she had to infuse the taste of mooncakes, that holiday mainstay, into a delicate chocolate shell.
Across many Asian countries, the Mid-Autumn Festival is among the most important holidays of the year, with families gathering together to celebrate the harvest moon...

Around the world, cafés and eateries are sharing Deaf culture.
Imagine walking into a popular restaurant in a trendy neighborhood. Instead of hearing, “Good evening, how many in your party?” you are greeted by a silent but smiling host, who uses gestures to show you to your table. You’re puzzled, until you read the menu’s explanation that the entire restaurant staff is Deaf, and you will need to order without speaking. Over the last decade, Deaf-owned restaurants have sprung up around the world...

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...