When you live in a neighborhood overrun by donut purveyors and nail shops, with a fair number of fairly unappetizing Chinese restaurants sprinkled in between, the arrival of a new joint featuring a new regional cuisine is cause for at least a little salivation. In the Grand Lake district, we now have a Flavors of India restaurant, second outpost -- the first opened in Rockridge in 2006. It's not great Indian food. We'll be......

Someday, we'll all sit around and be able to tell each other just where we were when Anna Nicole Smith died. -Board of Supes Rules Committee votes for grace period for paid sick leave. ...

Tomato crops haven't fared well in California's recent heat wave, which might explain why market stalls aren't overflowing with the iconic summer vegetables. We spotted some recently, and took some home for a tomato tasting in the SFist test kitchen. Honest, we came up with this idea before the New York Times ran an article about a similar tasting . We used tomatoes from the Grand Lake Farmer's Market and stored them at room......

We geeked out on garlic last year, so we instantly recognized the twisty garlic scapes at the Grand Lake farmer's market last week. A scape is the stem that shoots through the middle of a bulb of hardneck garlic, the more flavorful subspecies of that aromatic bulb, which we'll cover a bit more in July or August. Thin garlic scapes bend into graceful arcs as they emerge from the soil, creating a striking vegetable.......

I rely on a number of high-quality producers for the Kitchen column. Some I've written about in depth, some make frequent cameo appearances. Here are the unsung (at least at this site) producers I relied on in 2005. Fatted Calf Great charcuterie is hard to find. No wonder, then, that Fatted Calf has a cult following among cured meat connoisseurs. Taylor and Toponia, who started the business with their own savings, use top-notch ingredients to......

So SFist's take on the movies made you think you'd like to escape the holiday madness by going to the movies. We understand. We've been hiding from assorted shoppers and/or relatives in our local theatre for years -- sure, the floors are stickier than they would be at home, but at least we're not getting a headache from smiling and biting our tongue. May we suggest taking in a flick at a movie theatre......

Dark greens last week, turnips this week. If you need proof that winter is here, the produce at local farmer's markets drives the point home. On the other hand, Kitchen photographer Melissa spotted a late batch of strawberries at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market, and we've spotted tomatoes recently as well. And we wonder why other parts of the country envy our markets. Oddball summer produce aside, root vegetable season has returned, and carrots,......

When it came time to pick the best place to shop for food, we fretted over the decision. We knew the winner would be a farmer's market, since seasonal produce bought from local farmers beats virtually every store's fruits and vegetables. But which market to choose? The Bay Area probably has more farmer's markets per capita than anywhere else, each with its own personality and devotees. The Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market gets plenty of......

We first heard about Kathy FitzHenry and her company Juliet Mae when friend of SFist Fatemeh casually mentioned that she had bought some piment d'espelette. This Basque ground-up pepper product is hard to find but we like it for seasoning meats, stews, and vinaigrettes. We found FitzHenry, a stylishly dressed, slim, energetic woman, at Oakland's Grand Lake market. We left with piment d'espelette and a small armful of other ingredients. FitzHenry's extensive background in......

When we first saw crayfish for sale at a farmer's market, we had a surprisingly strong reaction. The writhing mass of insect-like shellfish touched a primeval reflex, and we felt shivers along our spines. We hurried past, eager to get our twitching shoulders under control. Fast forward a few years to the Grand Lake Market in Oakland. We spotted another crayfish vendor, but this time we subdued our frissons long enough to ask an......

Your intrepid junkie takes the lower deck of the Emperor Norton to report on some news from the Oakland City Council: city councilman Danny Wan, who represents Oakland's District 3 (Grand Lake and Chinatown), has announced his resignation from the council, stating that he couldn't afford to stay on as a city councilmember and also support his aging parents. Wan was one of three Asian-Americans council members, and the only member who was openly gay (out of 8). Wan emigrated from Taiwan at an early age (we can't find any biographical information about him online), attended Cal and UCLA Law School, and was first appointed to the City Council in 2000. He then was elected in 2002 to a four-year position. His legislative highlights include sponsoring a bond to restore Lake Merritt, passing laws requiring city publications to be printed in languages other than English, and his efforts to have Oakland recognize same-sex marriage licenses from SF (which was stymied only when the Supreme Court found them unconstitutional). We're sad to see him go (and feel slightly shamed by his Asian street cred on the elder respect thing). ...