Food&Drink GOOD TIMES
MAGAZINE 2017
More Than a Flavor
History Cook
What spices do for our senses
Food Heritage Project tracks local recipes
I Think I Can
vintage year
the best local wines of 2017
The great canned beer debate
VIVA EL MENÚ
Mexican specialties sweep Santa Cruz
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Look for the Yellow 2017 Clean Ocean Business emblem in the City of Santa Cruz
2017
These local businesses have made special efforts to protect local creeks, the San Lorenzo River, and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by adopting practices that keep pollutants away from both storm drains and the sewer system.
These Vehicle Service Facilities are 2017 Clean Ocean Businesses 7-Eleven, Ocean St 7-Eleven, Mission St AAMCO Transmissions Abraham Auto Detail Advanced Auto Ainsworth Auto Repair Aloha Motors Apco Gasoline Art of Steel Autoworld Sales & Leasing Avis Rent a Car Bayside Oil II Big O Tires Chevron City of Santa Cruz Auto
Services (Fleet) County of Santa Cruz Auto Services (Fleet) De Laveaga Service Center Doc Auto Enterprise Rent-a-Car Fanucci Auto Body Fidelity Automotive Firestone Complete Auto Care First Transit Flyers Goodwill Central Coast (Fleet) Goodyear Tire & Auto Repair
Graniterock (Fleet) Green Station Greg Solow’s Engine Room Hertz Car Rentals Holiday Muffler & Brakes Jiffy Lube Jim Ludy’s Automotive Keener Auto Body Las Animas Concrete Legacy Automotive Lloyd’s Tire Service Monterey Bay Automotive Monterey Bay Marine North Bay Ford Dealership
Ocean 76 Ocean Auto Repair OM Group, Mission St OM Group, Soquel Ave Perrigo’s Auto Body Shop Polar Automotive & Radiator Service Rene’s Auto Repair Riley Collins Auto Body Shop Rod & Ros Gas Mart 2 Rotten Robbie RPM Auto Repair Rusty’s Repair RV Service Center of SC
Santa Cruz Auto Parts Santa Cruz Auto Tech Santa Cruz Automotive Santa Cruz High School Auto Shop Santa Cruz Imported Truck Service Santa Cruz Metro Transit District (Fleet) Santa Cruz Motorsports Santa Cruz Nissan DodgeVolkswagen Sav-On Gasoline Scott’s Body Shop Stanford Ave Garage
Stoodley’s Small Engine Services Tim’s Auto Electric United Parcel Service (Fleet) Van Cafe Water Star Motors Weston’s Auto Body & Paint Westside Auto Repair Whalers Car Wash * Five Year Qualifier
These Restaurants are 2017 Clean Ocean Businesses 515 Kitchen & Cocktails A Slice of Kianti’s Akira Sushi Allbright Donut Shoppe Aunt Nettie’s Kitchen Bagelry, Cedar St Bagelry, Seabright Ave Bantam Beach Street Café Beckmann’s Bakery Best Western All Suites Inn Betty Burgers Black China Bakery Boardwalk Boccis Cellar Burger King, Soquel Ave Burger King, Mission St Café Brazil Café Delmarette Café El Palomar Café Gratitude Café Lena Café Limelight Café Mare Caffé Bene Caffe Pergolesi Charlie Hong Kong Chipotle Chocolate Civic Auditorium Coffeetopia Coldstone Creamery Costco County Cafeteria County Jail/Food Services Crepe Place Crow’s Nest Days Market De La Hacienda Taqueria De Laveaga Lodge
Restaurant Del Pueblo Market Dream Inn Earth Belly El Hermoso Mar El Palomar El Salchichero Elks Lodge Elm Street Mission Emily’s Good Things to Eat Engfer Pizza Works Erik’s Deli Café Falafel House Feel Good Foods Ferrell’s Donuts, Mission St Ferrell’s Donuts, Ocean St Fins Coffee Firefly Coffee House Food Bin and Herb Room Fortune Garden Foster’s Freeze Front Street Residential Gabriella Café Gilda’s Restaurant Golden City Golden Palace Grocery Outlet Harvey West Clubhouse Hindquarter Bar & Grille Hoffman’s Downtown Hula’s Island Grill Ideal Bar & Grill India Joze Iveta Gourmet Jack in the Box Jack’s Hamburgers Jamba Juice, Mission St Jamba Juice, Pacific Ave Java Junction, Seabright Ave
Java Junction, E Cliff Dr Jeffery’s Restaurant Joe’s Pizza & Subs, Branciforte Ave Joe’s Pizza & Subs, Pacific Ave Johnny’s Harborside Kelly’s French Bakery Kiantis Pizza & Pasta Bar Kitchen Santa Cruz Kuumbwa Jazz Center La Posada La Posta Las Palmas Taco Bar Lillian’s Italian Kitchen Linda’s Seabreeze Café Little Caesar’s Pizza Local Harvest Catering Los Pinos Louden Nelson Center Lupulo Craft Beer House Maharaja Marianne’s Ice Cream Marianne’s Ice Cream Plant Marini’s Westside Production Marini’s Downtown Marini’s Munchies May’s Sushi Restaurant McDonalds, Mission St McDonald’s, Ocean St Metro Center Midtown Café Mission Hill Creamery Mission Hill Jr. High School Kitchen Mission Street Barbeque Mobo Sushi New Leaf Community Market, Fair Ave
New Leaf Community Market, Pacific Ave Ninety Nine Bottles Ocean City Buffet Olitas Cantina & Grille Omei Oswald’s Oyunaa’s Mongolian Cuisine Pacific Blue Inn Pacific Cookie Company, Pacific Ave Pacific Cookie Company, Potrero St Pacific Cultural Center Pacific Thai Paradox Hotel Parish Publick House Pearl of the Ocean Peet’s Coffee & Tea Phoenix Asian Restaurant Pizza My Heart Planet Fresh Burritos Plantronics Pono Hawaiian Grill Portuguese Hall Quality Market Real Thai Kitchen Ristorante Avanti Ristorante Italiano Riva Fish House River Street Shelter Rosie McCann’s Irish Pub Sabieng Thai Safeway, Mission St Safeway, Morrissey Blvd Saint Francis Kitchen Sake Sala Thai Samba Rock Café Santa Cruz Bible Church
Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co. Santa Cruz Diner Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Saturn Café Seabright Brewery Sentinel Café Shogun Shopper’s Corner Shun Feng Soif Staff of Life Stagnaro Brothers Seafood Starbucks Steamer Lane Supply Subway, Mission St Subway, Ocean St Subway, Soquel Ave Sunshine Villa Surf City Billiards & Cafe Surf City Grill Surfrider Café Sushi Now Sushi Totoro Taco Bell, Mission St Taco Bell, Soquel Ave Tacos Morenos Tam’s Chinese Restaurant Taqueria Agave II Taqueria Apatzingan Taqueria Jalapenos Y Pupuseria Taqueria La Cabana Taqueria Santa Cruz Two Taqueria Vallarta, Mission St Taqueria Vallarta, Soquel Ave The Buttery The Penny Ice Creamery
The Picnic Basket The Water Street Grill Togos, Almar Ave Togos, Ocean St Tony & Alba’s Pizza Top A Lot Yogurt Tramonti Pizzeria Twisselman Enterprises (Boardwalk) Upper Crust Pizza & Pasta Vasili’s Greek Restaurant Verve Coffee Roasters, Pacific Ave Verve Coffee Roasters, Fair Ave Viva’s Mexican Food Walnut Avenue Café West End Tap & Kitchen Westside Coffee Company Whiting’s Foods (Boardwalk) Whole Foods Market Wingstop Woodstock’s Pizza Yan Flower Yogurtland Your Place Zachary’s Restaurant Zoccoli’s Deli * 5 Year Qualifier
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
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EDITOR’S NOTE SOUTHERN COMFORT MEXICAN SPECIALTY DISHES ARE A LOCAL SENSATION
PEPPERED, WITH QUESTIONS WHY SPICES ENRICH OUR FOOD, AND OUR LIVES
BEER: SHAKE IT UP? BOTTLES OR CANS? JUST CLAP YOUR HANDS
HISTORY COOK
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n this issue of Food & Drink magazine, we’re on a spicy kick. First, Christina Waters looks at how Mexican specialties are all the rage at upscale restaurants locally. It’s interesting not only in the way it expands the definition of Mexican cuisine in a taqueria-rich dining scene, but also because, in some cases, chef talents like Gema Cruz of Gabriella Cafe are getting an outlet to explore their heritage. Cruz grew up cooking with her grandmother in Oaxaca, and now Gabriella is hosting a special night each week that features dishes from the region. Nicely complementing Christina’s piece is Maria Grusauskas’ exploration of spice, and how it affects our dining experience. The O.G. Santa Cruz spice meister, Jozseph Schultz, offers the kind of insight on the subject that we’ve come to expect from him over his many years running India Joze. Lest ye think that we are only living up to half of our name, check out our stories on the best new wine releases, and the age-old question of whether beer belongs in a can. Cheers! STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR
THE SANTA CRUZ FOOD HERITAGE PROJECT TRACKS LOCAL RECIPES
STAFF PUBLISHER
DINING ON THE RISE SANTA CRUZ BAKERIES EXPAND THEIR MENUS
Jeanne Howard EDITOR
Steve Palopoli MANAGING EDITOR
Maria Grusauskas CONTRIBUTORS
IT’S A VERY GOOD YEAR THE BEST LOCAL WINE RELEASES OF 2017
Josie Cowden Anne-Marie Harrison Jacob Pierce Lily Stoicheff Christina Waters ART DIRECTOR
Tabi Zarrinnaal DESIGNERS
Rosie Eckerman DiAnna VanEycke
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
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THE FOODIE FILES A CALENDAR OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY FOOD AND DRINK EVENTS
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OAXACAN ROOTS Chef Gema Cruz of Gabriella Cafe with Oaxaca quesadillas, chicken mole, and chile rellenos. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER
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Exposure SOUTHERN
MEXICAN FUSION TAKES OFF IN SANTA CRUZ
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here was a time—baby boomers might remember it—when the introduction of a Mexican TV dinner revolutionized North American food choices. Well, maybe not revolutionized, but certainly expanded. And it wasn’t long after, in 1962, that an L.A. entrepreneur named Glen Bell started up a fast food idea called Taco Bell. Neutered of full salsa sexuality, it nonetheless gave lots of folks a quick hit of crisp tortilla, ground beef topped with orange cheese and a topping of salsa. Today, Taco Bell annually serves more than 2 billion customers. In California—a state that was once part of Mexico—foods involving tortillas, pink beans, pico de gallo, and a wide range of salsas are fundamental to life itself. Taquerias offering inexpensive, insanely delicious fare exist on every corner—Tacos Moreno, Taqueria Vallarta, Jalapeños, La Cabaña, and on and on in my city alone. When I first came to town from San Francisco 30 years ago, I seemed to spend the better part of every week at Las Palmas Taco Bar, where shaved lettuce took on new excitement, and at Manuel’s, home of the ultimate gooey, oozing, voluptuous chile relleno. Jose Espinoza came to town and created El Palomar in the heart of downtown. After tasting his family's dreamy hominy-laced pozole, and those feather-light puffed sopes, our tastebuds could never (well, almost never) go back to Taco Bell. The mainstreaming of Mexican food has worked out deliciously on many fronts. Thanks in part to culinary evangelist Rick Bayless, the astonishing range of Mexican styles and flavor ideas is available in frozen food sections, and in newly chic fast food shops like Chili’s Grill and Chipotle. Increasingly Mexican dishes share menus with Korean kimchi and Japanese ramen, suggesting a fusion cuisine that is not so much a revival as a re-awakening. Even the ultra oldschool Shadowbrook has a soba noodle medley, and a Baja-Style prawn cocktail, plus any number of wasabi and soy dipping sauces on its upscale menus. At Discretion Brewing, chef Santos Majano adds snapper tacos as well as pork belly ramen and chili fried rice with Shanghai baby bok choy to his global menu. Lúpulo gastropub specializes in contemporary tapas that include empanadas, Spanish omelets, shredded pork tacos, and pressed sandwiches loaded with queso oaxaca and mango-jalapeño chutney. The Mexican accent is not a theme so much as an inspiration. An evolution of mixed culinary strands is taking place.
BY CHRISTINA WATERS
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<9 SOUTHERN EXPOSURE The popular pop-ups next to Assembly, and those at the Food Lounge, go deep into what used to be called “ethnic cuisine,” from pho and ramen to exotic wraps with chutneys and salsas. Santa Cruz has workshops such as Melissa’s Mexican Made Easy, and catering groups like My Mother’s Mole, showcasing the spicy subtleties of the cuisine. And at our top bakery/cafe hybrids— Gayle’s, Buttery, Kelly’s—Mexican classics find a following. Buttery turns out a stellar pozole, Gayle’s does a chicken tortilla soup that would be at home in Zihua, and Kelly’s has long featured fish tacos as one of its most popular entrees. Part of the insurgence of Mexican flavors, elements, and recipe styles into mainstream formats has to do with availability of ingredients. There simply were no avocados on the East Coast when I was a kid. And cilantro was rare, unless you grew it yourself. Again, partly driven by Bayless and his fellow new American chefs, authentic and fresh Mexican culinary ingredients are abundantly available. Poblanos, tomatillos, serranos, nopales. Two local restaurants reveal the bandwidth of Mexican influences. At Ulterior (above Motiv) Chef Zachary Mazi is busy planning a trip to Mexico City to study authentic and contemporary Mexican cookery. Mazi grew up in Oregon and the West Coast “inundated with Mexican food and culture.” His love affair with mole began not through his own cultural background, but when he was asked to cater a Oaxacan-themed wedding six years ago. “I was amazed at the depth and richness of the variety of cuisines throughout Mexico,” he says. “Growing up, I feel that Tex/Cali Mex cuisine was all I had seen.” In 10 months of Pop-Up at the Food Lounge, and LionFish Supper Club (which morphed into Ulterior Restaurant & Bar), his menu explored the foods of the world. “Each week, we would fully shift our menu and focus on one specific region of the world, bringing in dishes that exist in relative obscurity, both for our customers’ enjoyment, and also for our own education.” His favorites were cuisines from Mexico, Central and South American, and Southeast Asia. “Last year, in our third month at Ulterior, we decided to have a Cinco de
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MOLE MOTIVES Chef Zachary Mazi of Ulterior with mole, a dish he fell in love with six years ago when asked to cater a Oaxacan-themed wedding. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER
Mayo menu, which lasted for six weeks. One hundred percent Mexican specialties with some very fun and interesting dishes. Mazi has been exploring Mole Poblano lately. “There are no recipes,” he believes. “Only techniques and ingredients. The mole I make now is my intuitive approach to a recipe that I have edited drastically, and it changes every time I make it.” Inspired by chef Enrique Olvera at the highly rated Pujol restaurant, Mazi will be traveling to Mexico City for dining research—“and perhaps even take a cooking class or two while in Mexico.” At Gabriella Cafe, Chef Gema Cruz has worked her way up through Paul Cocking’s kitchen over the past 20 years. Thanks to her own roots, cooking with her grandmother in Oaxaca, Cruz now peppers Gabriella’s regular menu with dishes of southern Mexico. On Tuesdays, regulars come for Cruz’s luscious chicken chiles rellenos and her complex chicken mole, and pipian sauces as well as Oaxacan quesadillas packed with queso Oaxaca, epazote, avocado,
cabbage and crème fraîche. And how does Gabriella’s clientele respond? “People really like these dishes, they come in and ask a lot of questions, they talk about the food,” says Cocking, who gets a kick out of seeing tacos popping up in Japanese and Korean restaurants in the Bay Area. “Yes, this really is California Cuisine. We are still mostly Italian, but a little French has always slipped in, and more Mexican now. Everybody is doing tacos now. Even high-end Asian places.” Cruz, who cooked her way up the ranks, is equally expert turning out Gabriella’s non-Mexican dishes. “She’s doing a great job,” says Cocking. “She is that happy combination of a good cook and a good kitchen manager.” There are still far more taquerias than upscale Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area, perhaps because Mexican food has for some time now been perceived as inexpensive, using ingredients long on beans, rice, and tortillas. As more young chefs take the reins at top restaurants, the evolving character of Mexican cookery can only grow more sophisticated.
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of Life More than just flavoring, spices wake up our mouths, offering variety, aromatics, and cultural memories By Maria Grusauskas 12
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I
f Jozseph Schultz had to choose a favorite spice, it would probably be sumac. At least on this particular Tuesday evening, just before the dinner rush at India Joze. The metallic chime of kitchen gadgets follows the chef as he jumps up and disappears into the kitchen, returning with a tiny white dish. At its center, a dash of powder radiates burnt crimson in the particulate-golden sunlight now filtering through the sidewalk bamboo that muffles Front Street. Sumac, which is also used as a dye, and to tan leather, is tart and slightly sweet like tamarind, with a salty finish. “This is a spice you put on late. A lot of spices have to be cooked,” says Schultz of the Middle Eastern spice. “They use this on grilled meats, certain salad dressings. It’s a good example of a spice a lot of people might not know. It’s pretty, it garnishes foods well, and it’s very easy to use because you don’t have to put it in early.”
Later, when I see the vibrant dust sprinkled over white yogurt, next to light green slices of Persian cucumbers, its value as a garnish makes a lasting impression. But asking a chef to name their favorite spice is like asking a musician to name their favorite note, or a writer their favorite word. “Spices are like colors, they don’t exist in a vacuum. All flavors and aromas exist in relation to other flavors and aromas,” answers Schultz. “So it’s really impossible.” The thing is, we are always surrounded by aromas and flavors, including the aroma and flavor of our own mouths, explains Schultz. And when you are tasting something all the time, you lose the ability to taste it. “So the thing about spices is they create change,” says Schultz. “And the change is something you notice. Because if you keep eating the same flavor, it doesn’t matter whether it was a good
flavor or not, it’s just not there anymore.” Spices create contrast. They wake us up, says Schultz. The beloved fixture of Santa Cruz dining has been cooking with “all sorts of roots and berries and spices” for some 45 years now, and says he was attracted first to Indian cuisine because they use more spices than any other culture, and in very specific ways. It’s never usually any one spice, but an intricate, region-specific tapestry that people identify with. “What good cooks do is make a dinner sort of a journey. You’ve got a lot of different flavors and aromas and textures, so your mouth is never tiring of any one of them,” he says, noting that some spices, like vanilla, are overpowering, and can cancel out all other spices in a dish, which is why they’re typically served 14 >
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<13
SPICE OF LIFE
in desserts. “You just want to give your mouth a rest, give a certain part of your taste buds a rest, and engage others. That’s what our relishes are about, too.” At India Joze, coriander and cumin and turmeric and opium poppy seeds and asafoetida and galangal—and a long list of other spices—dance through the Middle Eastern and Asian dishes (many recipes of which can be found in Schultz’s cookbooks, as well as online). Their nuances extend to the star anise that peeks out of his Thai iced tea, and the floral notes of orange blossoms in the housemade ice creams. A table of relishes offers up even more variation: spicy mint-cilantro-cashew and sweet ginger-raisin chutneys, Kaffir lime salsa, and spicy Yemeni Foenegreek sauce, are just a few examples. And aside from flavor, spices bring hundreds of thousands of aromas to the table, Schultz points out, which act on the brain to bring up specific associations, memories and emotions. “And that’s why a lot of traditional dishes often have very specific spices that are used,” he says.
RARE RICHES It’s partly just the rareness of a spice, and the novelty of it, that makes it special. “If you’ve never had black pepper, you’d think ‘this is amazing,’’ and ‘it’s so aromatic, and it’s slightly bitter,’” says Schultz. “Black pepper is the most common of the spices because it works really well for a lot of things.” This has been the story throughout history, when it often took a full year for a European spice caravan to travel to the Indies and back. “Value was added every step of the way. Spices are the basis of all trade,” he says, noting that the term “spice” originated to include not just foods but dyes and medicines and perfumes and silks. “The quest for the origin of spices will take you quite swiftly around the world,” says Liz Birnbaum, another one of Santa Cruz’s great food historians, who often plunders the rich mythologies and historic origins of spices in her educational dinners with the Curated Feast. “They launched ships and caravans, imperial campaigns and economic speculation. It is hard to
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overestimate the global trade and drama behind the black pepper which sits so unassumingly on your dining room table.” Indeed, the now-ubiquitous black pepper used to be worth as much as gold. Sugar, worth more than cocaine. And especially during FROM ASAFOETIDA TO ZATAR Chef Jozseph Schultz built this spice rack the Elizabethan when he was a 19-year-old student at UCSC. It weighs in at 42 pounds and and Roman times, holds 68 spices. PHOTO: SASHA CHILDS says Schultz, some dishes were very Native to Southwest Asia, saffron highly spiced—a way to show off your consists of the pistils of the crocus richness and worldliness. flower. As it takes some 75,000 flowers to make a pound of saffron, says Schultz, SPICE QUEEN it’s the most expensive of today’s spices. Sri Lanka is known to many as the cradle With a subtle but penetrating fragrance, of the ancient spice trade, which dates saffron renders a beautiful yellow tint to back to even before the seventh century. its dishes. “It’s like gold you’re putting To this day, spices remain a major export, to a food,” says Wilen, who uses it for its says Ayoma Wilen, owner of the Sri aroma along with ginger in her rice. Lankan restaurant Pearl of the Ocean. Like Schultz, Wilen values spices for Most notably, perhaps, is its Ceylon the variation they can provide. cinnamon. “There is another one “Some people think that putting in South Asia, and China has cassia spice into food is using all the spices cinnamon, but it’s not as valuable,” she in the spice cabinet. But that will be says. “It’s a real good cinnamon, and it overpowering,” says Wilen. “Each dish cuts down the blood sugar in Ayurveda, has a different spice blend, and it will and it cuts down the cholesterol.” taste completely different.” Wilen, whose grandfather was an Wilen chuckles long and hard when Ayurvedic doctor, approaches her menu I ask her her favorite spice, but finally from the Ayurvedic belief that food is answers: ginger. “It’s very healing, and medicine—and that balancing all of the I love the flavor and aroma,” she says. six flavors is crucial to balancing the But, she emphasizes not only using fresh energies in the body. ginger, but also using the skin, which “In a Western diet, compared to many people throw away. “Ginger skin is Eastern, they are really missing the very important,” says Wilen. “It’s OK to bitterness in the diet, and then they get use the skin, the skin has more vitamins. a craving for coffee, coffee, coffee,” she Just wash it very well. The same thing says. “Because the human body needs all with the potato.” these flavors, including the bitter.” So she incorporates bitter vegetables Upcoming events with Jozseph Schultz include like kale, and the exotic bitter melon Choreocopia, a festival of food, song and fruit, which can be found at the Aptos dance, at 5:30 p.m. on May 14 (tickets on farmers market. She also draws on a brownpapertickets.com) and the Flower Festival wide array of spices, including fresh and Feast, a benefit for the College of Botanical lemon grass, cardamom (the queen of Healing Arts, from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, May 21. spices), gambooge, mustard and saffron. Tickets are $125 per person at cobha.org.
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WHEN WILL CANNED BEER EXPLODE? BY JACOB PIERCE
F
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our years ago, the writing was on the wall for beer bottles. Everyone from NPR to Business Insider was covering the environmental benefits and convenience of beer in cans. And that, as opposed to glass bottles, aluminum prevents any light whatsoever from getting through and damaging delicious libations. Local breweries like Discretion and Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing have since begun canning some varietals, and Uncommon Brewers—which has only ever done cans—appears more popular than ever. Canned wine has even started taking off. And yet when you go to the grocery store shopping for Deschutes Black Butte Porter or Lagunitas’ Censored Ale, you will—like it or not—be headed out the door with a six-pack of bottles. That, of course, is a shame for those of us who love drinking classic West Coast craft brews, but also enjoy the taste of crisp beer out of a can. As my cousin Mike told me last weekend, “I don’t know why anyone’s still putting beer in bottles.” Oliver Carter, beer and wine manager for New Leaf Community Markets, says canned beer accounts for about 20 percent of their beer sales—a force to be reckoned with, for sure, but by no means the aisle’s dominating force. Carter says he still prefers drinking beer out of bottles, although he can’t exactly pinpoint why, conceding that it may have something to do with the “stigma” of sipping beer out of a can. His bottleloving druthers apply to most, though not all, brews. “I actually prefer drinking Sierra Nevada beer out of the can,” he says. “I don’t know what it is. They’re very clear about it being the same beer. It
just seems like it tastes less malty or something.” As someone who never enjoyed Sierra Nevada Brewing’s pale ale until it came out in cans five years ago, I can attest to that difference in taste being totally real. Or is that bias all in my head? Discretion brewmaster Michael Demers says there isn’t any difference between drinking out of a can or a bottle, for Sierra Nevada or any other brand. And, either way, the taster should pour their drink into a glass no matter what, so they can smell it, he adds. But when he finds himself in dire straits and cups aren’t available, Demers says he too still prefers bottles. “Something about the way that a bottle feels coming to your lips is more satisfying than the way a can feels,” he explains. “But if I’m going camping, I would rather bring cans, because they’re lighter and easier to get rid of. Just crush ’em up and put ’em back in your pack.” These days, Discretion bottles four types of beers: Uncle Dave’s Rye IPA, Shimmer Pils, Darjeeling Lager and one rotating seasonal. Its first canned creation, the recent Submarine Canyon, was a fundraiser for Save Our Shores that flew off store shelves. Demers will soon begin work on Discretion’s second canned beer—a pale, heavy on the mosaic hops that has performed well in both tap rooms and keg sales. In the brewing industry (like any other), the trailblazers of previous generations often show more reluctance to dive head first into the latest craze. Lagunitas Brewing, which is based in Petaluma, finally came out with its first canned beer, the 12th of Never, last summer. The name is a nod to the now-broken promise it made to never, ever sell beer in cans.
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RECIPE SAVERS Left to right: Katie Hansen, Liz Birnbaum, Sierra Ryan and Jody Biergiel Colclough of the Santa Cruz Food Heritage Project. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER
A Place at theTable Santa Cruz Food Heritage Project cookbook tracks a nearly forgotten history of local culinary traditions
I
BY LILY STOICHEFF
t was almost a hundred years after her family came to Santa Cruz that Live Oak native Sierra Ryan first held her greatgrandmother’s recipe book in her hands. The worn, tattered book bore her great-grandmother’s maiden name, Libbie Gilmour, and a handwritten date: 1908. In addition to the delight of holding a physical piece of family history, Ryan’s interest was piqued by the food they were eating and the references to friends and neighbors. “There are all these recipes from when my
grandmother was small that refer to other people, like ‘Mrs. Thompson’s Chili Sauce Recipe,’ and other friends and neighbors. I loved that there were so many people from the community featured in this book.” Ryan had co-authored Lime Kiln Legacies, about another major industry that helped shape the region, and was inspired to explore Santa Cruz’s agricultural history more deeply. She and fellow amateur historians Liz Birnbaum, Jody Biergiel Colclough and Katie Hansen formed the Santa Cruz 20 >
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18 A PLACE AT THE TABLE
CLUCK TOWER Santa Cruz held the National Egg Laying Contest from 1918-1931 to promote the local poultry industry. In 1924, winner Santa Cruz Jane laid 303 eggs in 365 days. The back of this photo claims that, “Little Nancy feeds Santa Cruz Jane daily.” PHOTO: COURTESY OF SIERRA RYAN
Food Heritage Project and began combing local archives. Over the last three years, the self-proclaimed “Heritagistas” have explored how local foods came to Santa Cruz County, who cultivated them, how they were used and how they were grown through the extensive archives available at the Agricultural History Project in Watsonville, the Pajaro Valley Historical Association, the Museum of Art & History, the history museums of Capitola, San Lorenzo Valley and Soquel, the public library and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This summer, the Santa Cruz Food Heritage Project will release a cookbook filled with agricultural history and 25 historical recipes. They will be celebrating the release with a series of
events over the summer, including at the Third Friday event “History Jam,” on Friday, May 19 at the MAH. The book includes chapters on wine, wheat and potatoes, hops and beer, dairy, sugar beets, apples, artichokes and Brussels sprouts, berries, poultry and eggs, Pismo clams and dry-farmed tomatoes—all of which left a unique historical mark on Santa Cruz County. At the onset, the team wasn’t sure what sorts of stories would emerge from the dusty pages of notebooks and farming records, and many of their findings surprised them. Birnbaum, who works in the ecological agricultural industry, didn’t expect to learn that potatoes were grown in the San Lorenzo river floodplain, in what today is downtown Santa Cruz.
“It was the first thing that put Santa Cruz on the map as an agricultural hub in the 1860s and it coincided with the Gold Rush,” she explains. “A local historian has deemed it the ‘Spud Rush.’ It was a huge deal for three years, and then nothing. There was a boom and total bust.” Although most of the agricultural products they discuss in the book are no longer produced locally, they have left a geographic mark on the local communities, if you know where to look. For example, the long, narrow lots used for poultry during the turn of the century influenced the layout of Live Oak, and are referenced in street names like Chanticleer Avenue, which is named after a rooster. Brown Ranch Marketplace in Capitola sits on the site 22 >
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
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20 A PLACE AT THE TABLE of the former site of Brown Ranch, whose justice issues, was a challenge for the pioneering founder James Brown was an Heritagistas. While these stories are international producer of begonia bulbs intertwined with the history of the area, in the 1920s and the inspiration for the they weren’t necessarily the stories Begonia Festival. While researching the they set out to tell. While researching chapter on sugar beets, Colclough was the chapter on the local berry industry, amazed to discover that the Watsonville Hansen uncovered that the berry city seal bears a sugar farmers of Japanese beet to this day. descent were sent to “I was amazed that internment camps Santa Cruz county during World War residents had the II. “I agonized over foresight to save, every word on that organize and archive part because I was so fun tidbits of news concerned about doing articles, brochures and right by those who ephemera that we could had been imprisoned,” just easily access and says Hansen. They enjoy decades later. I were forced to ask truly appreciate all of questions about how to the people who work in portray history gleaned our local history venues from racist and sexist who preserve the past quotes. “How do you just in case anyone is handle an account like curious in the future,” one we have about says Colclough. hops pickers, where For Ryan, learning they say they didn’t about the history of want to use ‘these recreational clamming people,’ so they used INSIGHT EDITION The recipe in the area was the ‘those people’? Finding book kept by Sierra Ryan’s great-grandmother. most astonishing the balance of ‘this revelation. Combing is what happened,’ local beaches for Pismo but not condoning it clams and enjoying huge clambakes was was hard to grapple and frame,” says a popular recreational activity for more Birnbaum. Ultimately, the team tried to than a hundred years in Santa Cruz until strike a balance of acknowledging the the 1970s, when more than a century stories while not deviating from the side of over-foraging—the legal limit was of agricultural history they were trying an astounding 200 clams per person per to reveal. day—precipitated a steep decline, and the Ryan hopes that the Santa Cruz Food activity was banned. Heritage Project cookbook will help “The history of clamming was the most readers understand the role they play in shocking thing I uncovered. I was at least determining how the current chapter of aware of a history of the other crops,” Santa Cruz food history is written. “Santa says Ryan. “I wanted to include a fishery, Cruz has a really rich history that I think and was researching things to consider. both people who did and didn’t grow up I thought about abalone, but that was here might not know. People connect really more Monterey, and whaling, but to where they live on a deeper level if that wasn’t really for food, it was for they know about the history,” she says. other resources. Somebody was talking to “There’s a story of food in Santa Cruz and me about one of the other chapters and it it’s an ongoing story. We’re all a part of just came up. I had never heard of it, and it. There’s a history of people who came as soon as I started looking I was blown and shaped what we’re now experiencing away. As soon as we started talking to through their innovations and interests, some of the older generation of Santa but we have the capability of shaping the Cruz, everyone had stories.” future of food history in Santa Cruz. That Covering sensitive topics related to will reverberate across social aspects, the agricultural history, like labor and social economy and environment.”
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017 2017
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE RECIPE “This recipe came from the Baldwin Collection at the MAH and was in the home economics notebook of a student at Santa Cruz High in 1911. I love it not just because it’s one of the more delicious recipes that we’ve tried, but because it also listed all of the pricing associated with each of the ingredients. Because it was part of a home economics class, it wasn’t just how you cooked but how much it cost— that was the job of a homemaker at the time. The total cost for this recipe was about 8.7 cents.” — Sierra Ryan, Santa Cruz Food Heritage Project 2 cups flour 4 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp sugar ½ tsp salt ¼ cup butter ¾ cup milk 2 pints of fresh strawberries For the filling: 2 tbsp sugar 2 pints of strawberries Macerate the strawberries and sugar for 15 minutes. Sift dry ingredients, cut with butter or mix it with fingertips. Add milk to make a soft dough. Divide into two parts. Roll each to fit pan or roll and cut into eight individual cakes. Brush the lower cake with melted butter. Bake about 20 minutes at 375. Serve with strawberries. Cut and let stand in sugar of other fruits. Sift powdered sugar on the top cake.
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y r e k Ba s e t i B Local bakeries are also a great place to grab lunch or dinner—here’s what to look for BY CHRISTINA WATERS THE BUTTERY 702 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz Once a bakery, now an Eastside institution, the Buttery starts off with killer zucchini muffins, massive eggs platters, a textbook Croque Monsieur, and opulent oatmeal, and continues on to lunches featuring designer salads, hot sandwiches, homemade soups (and all of the sweet cakes, pies, and cookies, too) that can easily become dinner—in-house or to go. Customer demand drove the corner bakery to expand into an al fresco picnic spot, and extend lunch and dinner hospitality to its fanbase. We love the turkey basil sandwiches with pesto aioli and pickled onions. And the Joe’s Favorite— Black Forest ham on an in-house onion roll. Some of those coffee guys stay until dinnertime. 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
KELLY’S FRENCH BAKERY 402 Ingalls St., Santa Cruz Kelly’s launched itself with pretty pastries and lavish espresso drinks, and now caters to the faithful with creamy polenta and poached egg breakfasts, special lunch sandwiches and hot entrees. We order the roasted half chicken with fries for an easy take-away dinner. Or, add a glass of white wine and consume it out on the patio. And yes, it does all this while remaining the home of fine baguettes. 7 a.m.- 7 p.m.
GAYLE’S BAKERY AND ROSTICCERIA 504 Bay Ave., Capitola Gayle’s began as a bakery—authentic Parisian croissants and genuine French roast back in the day when those were impossible to find. After a life-altering trip to Italy, Joe and Gayle Ortiz revamped, expanded, and opened the oak-fired rosticceria. The rest is breakfast-to-dinner history, from bear claws and Blue Plate specials to carry-out lasagna ready to pop in your oven. 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
COMPANION BAKESHOP 2341 Mission St., Santa Cruz Companion is another example of a bread bakery that expanded its horizons to include exceptional biscotti, pies, tarts, and cookies, as well as savory galettes, baguette sandwiches, frittatas, quiches, and sourdough breads that defy comprehension. The aroma alone is sacred. The espresso drinks are definitive. Any combination of the above can carry cyclists, yogis, or inquiring pre-teens from dawn to dusk. 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues-Fri; 8 a.m.-3 p.m Sat & Sun. Closed Mon.
CAFE IVETA 2125 Delaware Ave., Santa Cruz Iveta began with a sensational scone, and then it decided that more was more. Now the scones have sweet friends; tarts, cookies and cakes, and the morning coffee and pastry biz morphs into a major lunchtime venue. Scrambled organic eggs and greens, or lox toast with cream cheese, tomatoes, red onions and capers—your call. Fresh soups and the life-giving turkey and havarti sandwiches are lunchtime rituals. The GF fudgy cookie is mythic. 7 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, from 8 a.m. on Sat & Sun. Also on the UCSC campus.
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
Cork It Over Six great new releases from local wineries BY JOSIE COWDEN
A
s the year rolls on, new releases from our beautiful local wineries are rolling out. Here are some of the best: Windy Oaks 2015 Rosé, Monterey: Named “Bastide La Combe” after a lovely guesthouse where Windy Oaks proprietors Judy and Jim Schultze stay in Provence, one sip of this blush beauty takes me straight to the South of France. Made with locally grown Grenache, I love the wine’s light, crisp flavor—and it pairs well with many different foods. $19. Odonata Wines 2014 Malbec, Lodi: Winemaker Denis Hoey recently released his superb 2014 Malbec, a fruit-forward concoction with a silky finish. I’m taken with the richness of this wine and the deeply concentrated color and flavor. I love a good Malbec—and I’d give this one a gold medal. $28. Loma Prieta Winery 2014 Sparkling Pinotage, Blanc de Noirs: This fun and fabulous sparkling white Pinotage is knockout delicious. Tropical fruit flavors and aromas of mango, passion fruit, guava, Key lime pie, buttered macadamia, and toasted coconut will convince you that you’re ready to party the night away. $49. Stockwell Cellars 2015 Sauvignon Blanc, Paso Robles: Anything with even a hint of marzipan immediately gets my attention, which is one of the reasons this Sauvignon Blanc is on my list. Crisp and clean with touches of lemon meringue, white pluot and clementine–and with smidgens of lemongrass, pink peppercorns and kiwi–it’s a perfect pairing with ceviche or oysters. $24. Bottle Jack 2013 Firenze Super Tuscan Blend: I love a luscious blend of vigorous varietals, and the Firenze is just that. Sangiovese, Teroldego, Merlot and Syrah from four different vineyards go into this splendid red wine, with the Italian Teroldego grape adding a saucy little touch like a Florentine lover. $28. Hallcrest Vineyards 2013 Chardonnay, Mendocino County: Something organic this way comes—in the form of Hallcrest Vineyards’ Organic Wine Works Chardonnay. If I’m looking to go organic without breaking the bank, this delightful Chard—with hints of pear, honey, applesauce and nectar—is the go-to wine. $15.
2017 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | FOOD & DRINK
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
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Dining Days A calendar of the most enticing local food events and festivals
LOCAL ARTISAN PANTRY MARKETPLACE AT FOOD LOUNGE The Santa Cruz Food Lounge is a critical incubator for emerging pop-up restaurateurs in town. They host a variety of monthly events to showcase local delicacies like the La Sofrita pop-up, open mic and burgers event, and weekly happy hour Monday through Friday. They also recently opened their own artisan pantry for a one-stop shop on everything from Live Earth Farm CSA, Fogline Farm chicken and pork, Ocean2table fish, and foraged products.
Info: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Santa Cruz Food Lounge, 1001 Center St., Suite One, Santa Cruz. scfoodlounge.com
FOOD TRUCKS A GO GO Santa Cruz’s food truck scene is growing, slowly and surely, but still lacks a unifying location to host all at once—which is why Food Trucks A Go Go offers food truck gatherings all around the county throughout the year. Every Tuesday, Food Trucks A Go Go hosts Taco Tuesday in the Park at Anna Jean Cummings Park in Soquel, so grab a taco and start the summer off right. Other events include food trucks Saucey’z and G’s Mexican Tacos, and several other master restaurateurs on wheels. Keep an eye out for their summer schedule.
Info: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2. Anna Jean Cummings Park, 461 Soquel San Jose Road, Soquel. foodtrucksagogo.com. Free. 2017 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | FOOD & DRINK
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Dining Days
SANTA CRUZ GREEK FESTIVALS Ever just get a hankering for all things Greek? Surprisingly, Santa Cruz has got a pretty great Greek game. For the immediate hunger there’s the 10th Annual Greek Food Faire on May 19-21—three glorious days of Greek culture, food, and live music. And if eating like a Greek just wasn’t enough for you, you can always live like one with the Santa Cruz Greek Festival which offers pretty much everything that the food faire doesn’t. Think spirits, pastries, dancing, shopping, pottery, more Greek food and more Greek music for a fully Greekified summer celebration.
Info: Friday-Sunday, May 19-21, Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church, 223 Church St., Santa Cruz. livelikeagreek.com. Free.
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
BONNY DOON ART, WINE & BREW FESTIVAL
FOODSHED PROJECT FARMERS MARKETS POP-UPS
Festivalgoers will be treated to an afternoon of art in the redwoods, featuring wine and craft brew tasting, with live music provided by returning headliner Extra Large and opener the Naked Bootleggers. There will also be food trucks of all kinds to provide the perfect pairings. Last year, this benefit event raised more than $50,000 to fund science and art programs at Bonny Doon Elementary School.
Using the public spaces of local farmers markets, the FoodShed Project hosts monthly events to talk, listen, cook, and celebrate seasonal food items and the vendors growing them. Free and family friendly, they host events at the downtown farmers markets on the second Wednesday of each month between June and September.
Info: 1 p.m. – 7 p.m., Saturday, June 3, Bonny Doon Equestrian Park. 3675 Bonny Doon Road, Bonny Doon. Bonnydoonartandwinefestival.com. Tickets $49 through May 31; $69 until June 3; $79 on-site.
Info: 3 p.m., Wednesday, June 14, Downtown Farmers Market, Center and Lincoln streets, Santa Cruz. santacruzfarmersmarket.org/ campaigns/the-food-shed-project. Free.
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Dining Days
EIGHTH ANNUAL HOP N’ BARLEY FESTIVAL More than 50 craft breweries, 12 cideries, and two stages of live music—how else would you want to spend your Saturday afternoon in July? Indulge responsibly on the best from Speakeasy, Discretion, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Lost Coast, and so many more. This year’s festival will also feature games, goodies, and live music by Paa Kow, The Leftovers, Windy Hill, Daze on the Green, and Ancestree.
Info: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, July 15. Skypark, 361 Kings Village Road, Scotts Valley. hopnbarley.org. Ticket price TBA.
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20177 FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
WINE PASSPORT DAYS The best part about summering in Santa Cruz? There is plenty to quench your thirst. With cider, beer, and spirits events, there’s a little for everybody, and starting in April the Wine Passport Days offer the best for wine lovers. The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association offers a taste of local vintner history as well as the best of the barrel on the third Saturdays of April, July, November and January, in partnership with more than 50 wineries throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Info: Noon-5 p.m., Saturday, July 22. scmwa.com. $65.
35TH ANNUAL CAPITOLA ART & WINE FESTIVAL More than 160 fine artists and 22 Santa Cruz Mountain wineries. Grab a glass, sit back, and enjoy the 35th annual Capitola Art & Wine Festival in the heart of town. There’s fun for the whole family with craft projects, juice tasting, dance and performing arts groups, street performers and live music.
Info: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10. Capitola Village, Capitola. capitolaartandwine.com. Free.
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2017 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | FOOD & DRINK
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Dining Days
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FOOD & DRINK | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2017
MOLE & MARIACHI FESTIVAL It’s the mole celebration that will have you saying olé, maybe all day. Last year’s festival drew nearly 4,000 people and winners included Sunny’s Catering and El Chipotle. Mole & Mariachi is a benefit for the nonprofit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks and features dancing, music, and mojigangas (giant puppets).
Info: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, Santa Cruz Mission Adobe State Historic Park, 144 School St., Santa Cruz. Tasting kits $10.
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY FAIR The favorite summertime tradition for the young and young at heart, plus deep-fried everything. Viva la summer!
Info: Sept. 13-17, Santa Cruz County
Fairgrounds, 2601 E Lake Ave., Watsonville. santacruzcountyfair.com. $5-$10.
EIGHTH ANNUAL SANTA CRUZ BOARDWALK CHILI COOK-OFF Who will win this year’s competition to create the most delicious in comfort food? You decide. Professional and amateur chefs cook the finest in Amateur Red, Amateur Vegetarian Red, Professional Red, and Professional Vegetarian Red. A portion of the proceeds go to the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center.
Info: Saturday, Oct. 28. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. beachboardwalk.com/chili. Tasting kit $10.
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