Food + Drink Archives

San Francisco’s Corpse Flower Is Blooming, Y’all

4Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

San Francisco’s Corpse Flower Is Blooming, Y’all

One of the big ol’ smelly, exotic flowers in SF is officially unraveling inside Golden Gate Park. We’re big fans of biophilia. And we’re just as endlessly giddy/enthusiastic about signal-boosting hyperlocal ways to exercise that inherent human quirk. Well, those of us in the seven-by-seven at the moment can catch an incredibly rare sight at the Conservatory of Flowers. But for how long? Just 48hrs — maybe less. “IT'S HAPPENING! Scarlet the Corpse Flower is blooming tonight at the Conservatory of Flowers,” reads a tweet from the greenhouse. “Join us tonight 5-9:30 pm (last entry 9 pm) for a special ticketed after-hours program.” People lined up to catch a glimpse (and whiff) of the flower yesterday evening, per social media. Thankfully, a glimpse at the livestream shows the fl...

This Oakland Deli Had a Car Smash Into It Over the Weekend

5Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Food + Drink, Nature + Climate Crisis

This Oakland Deli Had a Car Smash Into It Over the Weekend

A hit-and-run driver smashed into Oakland’s Wise Sons deli — the Jewish restaurant at 1700 Franklin Street — over the weekend, causing all matter of mayhem The automotive era might’ve been a terrible, costly, dangerous mistake. In the 100-plus years since their grip on American society, more than 3,600,000 motor vehicle mortality have been recorded; they are responsible for 40% of all transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions; have stripped cities of precious space, and led to the ballooning expansion of car-dependent suburbs; and have made our lives all around, more expensive and cumbersome. Oh, they also have a knack for plowing into human-made structures — like, say, a cherished East Bay eatery — when piloted by irresponsible bipeds. Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m., an ...

Queer Dinner Party Group in SF Raises $21K in Funding

12May

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Food + Drink, Queerness

Queer Dinner Party Group in SF Raises $21K in Funding

After securing $21K in its first-ever funding round, Deluxe Queer intends to expand its SF-focused dinner series and catering services to new heights. Like how hyperlocal news and opinionated takes on San Francisco’s underbelly play organizing roles in our coverage, Underscore_SF also oscillates around the brand’s innate queerness. (The founder and editor-in-chief — me! — is a queer-identifying biped, after all.) And we’ve been immeasurably fortunate to watch Deluxe Queer — an SF-based dinner series founded on the idea of connecting members of the LGBQIA+ community in more intimate, less sensory-bombarding places (like, say, a nightclub) over multi-course measles — grow and thrive. (I had the chance to attend the brand’s pilot dinner during Pride Month last year; I sat at the offi...

Extreme Fasting Is Still a Thing in Silicon Valley (and Elsehwere)

5May

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Extreme Fasting Is Still a Thing in Silicon Valley (and Elsehwere)

Fasting has long been touted by many religions, but a growing number of people in the SF Bay Area (and the country) are skipping meals for more secular reasons. What’s old is new again. One of Silicon Valley’s hottest trends is fasting as a means of biohacking — defined as hot-wiring or “engineering” your biology to fast-track success. Biohackers count among their numbers Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, and yesteryear-famous YouTube hustle darling Gary Vaynerchuk, both of whom say that restricting calories is a way to attain superhuman levels of focus. Men like Dorsey and Vaynerchuk use self-inflicted starvation as a tool for checking things off their to-do lists. But at what point does fasting cross over from helpful to harmful? And with that said, is it ever helpful? I may ...

San Francisco’s Biggest Ube Festival Is Back for 2023, Baby!

28Apr

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

San Francisco’s Biggest Ube Festival Is Back for 2023, Baby!

Oh, and it’s being paired with another iconic, equally vibrant, and chromatic food: matcha. “Babe, wake up. An iconic duo just dropped.” That was the conversation we had with ourselves when we heard Kapwa Gardens, San Francisco’s healing and culture space that highlights the city’s thriving Filipino community, announced its ube food festival, Yum Yams, is returning next month, following its prior festival held in September of 2022. What’s even more exciting about the event’s 2023 iteration? Matcha will be joining the chat, thanks to a collaboration with Japantown’s KOHO SF; the partnership exists as a means to elevate and celebrate AAPI month. “Just as the purple yam known as ube has become a signature flavor of Filipino Culture, the finely ground green tea powder matcha has bee...

We Asked ChatGPT Where to Get the Best Matcha in San Francisco

28Apr

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

We Asked ChatGPT Where to Get the Best Matcha in San Francisco

San Francisco has some of the best matcha cafes in the world — but does AI know that? The matcha craze that began steeping in 2015 — a frenzy that began stirring after Gwenth Paltrow (and Goop) began pedaling Instagram posts postering the drink — and hasn’t let up. It’s been one of the few foodie trends that’s proven to be evergreen… (literally). In San Francisco, with its gastronomic culture and glowing Asian American community, matcha has a forever safe space. By proxy: San Francisco sits as a bastion for all things matcha. In a city that’s popularized everything from matcha ice creams to matcha layered cakes, it’s easy to stray too far from the center. And when you do come back to that nucleus (read: a v, v, [v] good cup of matcha), it’s important that it’s a truly remarkable trip. ...

This SF Matriarch of Chinese Cuisine Gave the Best Advice on Life

24Apr

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Essays, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

This SF Matriarch of Chinese Cuisine Gave the Best Advice on Life

It's been over two years since Cecilia Chiang — a beloved fixture in SF's Chinese gastronomy — passed away at 100 years old; her evergreen advice on how to live a "long, fruitful" life remains something to return to, time and time again. The ’50s and early ’60s were years filled with humdrum East Asian food here in the States; most Americans synonymized “authentic” Chinese cuisine with oil-slicked chow mein and bland chop suey. Much like the microwavable TV dinners of those eras, Chinese cuisine was more of a means to an end rather than an exploration of refined flavors and preparations. But Cecilia Chiang — who came to the United States from China in 1949, fleeing the Japanese during World War II to then travel almost 700 miles on foot toward safety — changed the very notions of what we...

Forever Torn Between My Two Favorite SF Cinnamon Rolls

9Apr

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Forever Torn Between My Two Favorite SF Cinnamon Rolls

To want a classic or to want a spin on the original, it’s my perpetual tug-of-war between these two San Francisco bakeries. My corpulent childhood was punctuated by periods when I would find my breath heavy waiting for a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls to leave a warm oven. Or when I would reach for those sweet rolls that filled aluminum circle trays at Kroger. Or when my mom and I would stop at our favorite local bakery in North Texas to buy artisanal whole wheat bread — putting me in the way of yeasted spirals of cinnamon and sugar and butter. Mall cinnamon rolls will forever be a thing for me. Airports remain precarious places where my self-discipline could fall away to the sight of teal packaging. My adult life continues to oscillate around cinnamon rolls, albeit to a lesser exten...

We Asked ChatGPT Where’s the Best Burrito in San Francisco

8Apr

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

We Asked ChatGPT Where’s the Best Burrito in San Francisco

Can a robot powered by artificial intelligence give good food recommendations in SF? Surprisingly... yes. ‘ChatGPT Takes on SF’ is the series that sees us interact with the controversial chatbot about all things San Francisco, shedding a light on how (hopefully) human-produced hyperlocal journalism can’t be replaced by a machine-learning algorithm. I love burritos; we love burritos; you love burritos; everyone loves burritos. Our affinity for these tortilla-wrapped portable meals knows no bounds. (I *will* wait in line in a lengthy line or walk a half-mile [or more] out of my way to grab a scrambled egg morning burrito from Breakfast Little.) San Francisco even has its own hyperlocal style of burritos: the Mission Burrito. The type, itself, is accredited to Raul and Micael...

5 Very, Very (Very) Affordable Coffees in San Francisco

8Apr

By Matt Charnock3 Comments

Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

5 Very, Very (Very) Affordable Coffees in San Francisco

Simply existing on this mortal coil is expensive enough — so here's how you can save some money on coffee in SF. San Francisco and grossly expensive coffee drinks go hand in hand. Arguably, it’s the metro that popularized the $5 coffee (and the ensuing meme culture and societal fodder about how Millennials are throwing away their ability to buy property by purchasing these pricey drinks). There’s no shortage of ways to drop your tax return on boutique caffeine indulgences in SF, for sure. That said: There are a few frugal coffee hacks us coupon-clipping consumers can take advantage of in the seven-by-seven. Here are five of our favorites that could save you some major coin (though probably not enough to bundle up in a downpayment for an SF condo). Capital One Cafe’s 50% off ...