Padrone Peppers at Allstar Organics Farm
In keeping with the sloooow theme, I am FINALLY getting around to sharing some of the highlights of my fantastic experience in San Francisco at the Inaugural Slow Food Nation conference over Labor Day weekend. All in the name of research, people! God, I love the independent track (thanks to Nat’s inspirational insights!) that I’ve taken with grad school…studying food systems and social movements around food, essentially, within the confines of the International Development track of our Intercultural Relations Program at Lesley University, for those who don’t know (or need clarification–I don’t blame you…). I have my moments of what I refer to as mini existential crises around it all, but that’s the nature of being a full-time student of 33 who’s passions are food, culture and social justice and who frequently wonders how all of this will equate into an actual paying job once the Master’s is in hand, but that is really another matter altogether…
In the MEANTIME, let me share some of the highlights of this amazingly delicious, eye-opening and phenomenally organized series of events which focused on creating an inclusive food movement! I had the great fortune of having my dear cousin Evelyn accompany me on this trip, and we basically went from one glorious meal to tasting, to slow journey, to glorious meal to glorious meal from the moment we stepped off of the plane on Friday morning until we got on again Monday night. I have had many memorable–and even ecstatic–food experiences in my life, but I have to say that the overall experience at Slow Food so completely blew all of these out of the water that I find it difficult to really put it into words. Food so fresh, so expertly handled and crafted and presented, and all in a convivial, communal setting at each “Slow Dinner,” in keeping with the Slow Food Movement’s ethos, that tears of joy and pleasure welled in nearly everyone’s eyes, including my own, around the tables at which we sat. When I returned to Cambridge and went to Whole Foods a couple of days later to pick up a few things, I actually found myself wandering aimlessly around feeling like I was too out of touch with the food. It was disconcerting, to say the least, that I felt that Whole Foods wasn’t fresh enough, good enough, or local enough, but this gradually subsided….a good lesson–food for thought, I might just say–though, and one that has gotten me to the Farmer’s Market more consistently in lieu of my long-gone garden plot and CSA membership from my previous life in New Mexico (yay, Nat!).
We sat at meals next to the ranchers and farmers that provided our meat and produce, and whose olive oil ranches, dairies and farms we had visited during the day. I took a Slow Journey on Saturday to Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge to the north of San Francisco, led my Marin Organic and Marin Agricultural Land Trust to meet these folks and to explore their fields, farms and groves (and to also taste the fruits of their labor, of course) and to understand the process of reclaiming and securing agricultural lands near a major metropolitan area to create a truly local and sustainable food system.
Wondering what I had for dinner? Here’s a little sampling from the Marketbar from our second night, which benefited the California Food & Justice Coalition:
- Fried Padrone Peppers with sea salt (check out my pic of the peppers at Allstar Organics Farm that were picked that day for the festivities)
- Prosciutto & Melon with olive oil
- Roasted Beet, Blue Cheese & Arugula Salad with candied Walnuts
- Brentwood Corn Soup with cilantro (this was all pureed and DIVINE)
- Griddled Chicken Paillard with eggplant caponata
- Grilled Wild Sturgeon with peperonata & caper aioli (essentially the main reason I chose this dinner location–I am a fiend for sturgeon, and yes, it was totally worth it.)
- Swiss Chard Ravioli with heirloom tomato sauce
- Yellow Romano Beans
- Yukon Gold Potatoes
- Glazed Carrots
- And for dessert: Nectarine Galette with rose petal ice cream
These were not options, these were ALL of the offerings, served family-style to our long communal tables and yes, I ate all of it. I had a lovely glass of a local Sauvignon Blanc, Brander, Santa Ynez that just pulled the entire meal together.
Oh, and the Taste Pavilions? We went for 4 ecstatic hours of ice cream flights (chocolate malted goat milk ice cream, anyone?), chutneys, sustainable wine, coffee, chocolate, charcuterie, pickles in every shape, flavor and brine…..native foods (Picuris Pueblo from New Mexico was representing with the red chile sauce and posole–yay!!) and yes, a Hall of Bread. We sampled in moderation, we tactically alternated sweet with savory, and we still rolled ourselves out of there. And it was 150% worth it. In beautifully kind San Francisco fashion, we strolled up the hill from the Fort Mason complex where the pavilions were held to the Great Meadow where the Slow Food Rocks stage was set up and lazed in the grass under a perfect 72 degree sun listening to none other than Phil Lesh. It was beyond surreal at that point. My notion of perfection doesn’t get much better than that, people. All I can say is: 11 more months until the next Slow Food Nation, and Natalie is coming with!
