24734 Fri Jun 27 21:18:59 -0700 2003 10 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 97229 On a scorching hot Friday a cool jazz band was playing “Summer Time” at the Oakland Farmer’s Market. Maybe a little corny like hearing “I left my heart in San Francisco” at Fisherman’s Wharf. However, it was so appropriate. People lazily walked from vendor to vendor, many holding umbrellas to ward off the sun. Many of the regular vendors on the farmer’s market circuit with a few new faces to me. Dewey Farms specialized in pistachios with some almonds and walnuts. However the star was the pistachios. People were flocking to Stackhouse Brothers Orchards which boasted over 100 varieties of fruits (obviously over the growing season). All types of peaches and plums at $1 a pound. Bakery in a Barn advertised Pennsylvania Dutch and European baked goods. Has anyone tried them? Another bread vendor was Crepe and Brioche from San Francisco. Yet another organic, song bird, earth friendly coffee company called Papachay. Adam’s was selling pickles, olive oils and canned garlic cloves. They had a big vat of dill pickles as well. There were two egg vendors. One was selling the organic, free range type of egg. The other was similar to the egg vendor at Alemany with the Balut eggs and the purple salted duck eggs. Lots of flower and houseplant vendors. Hudson Fish was the fish vendor. Yes, they were buried in ice, but given that the temperature was …what? … 100 degrees … even looking at them was giving me an imaginary case of food poisoning. Then there were the usuals. Would it be a farmer’s market without Quick N EZE Indian Food? There was Happy Boy, Mora Farms, Twin Girls, and the nameless smaller vendors. It was a big week for all types of herbs and the warm weather perfumed the market with them, especially the basil. In prepared foods there was DiBrova Sausage, Big Paw olive oils and vinegars, All Star Tamales, and my favorite, Nina’s Russian foods. Great Harvest was carrying Spelt Bread which I had never seen before although I’ve been following conversations about spelt on the Chowhound boards. The plan was to bring home a chicken from Rosti, Rosti, however, I caught one of the employees in a sanitary faux pas. I am hoping he washed his hands afterward, but the image is unfortunately burned in my mind. I know this happens in kitchens that I can’t see in. However, the visual was way too much. The most interesting part of the Oakland farmers market was the permanent restaurants and businesses. If you want to cook Cajun, BBQ or African foods, this seems to be the place to do your shopping. There were a number of vendors in Swan’s Marketplace. EJ‘s Deli carried Allen’s ham and bacon, an impressive selection of ham, pork and bacon products. Polish people also have an appreciation of pork parts and I stored in the back of my mind that I might drop back this winter for some smoked ham hocks, shanks or neck bones to flavor a cabbage soup. They even had salt pork and pork jowl bacon. Abraham’s seafood is the place you want to go if you are making Cajun dishes calling for fish. There were huge Buffalo fish, black bass, perch, crawfish, shrimp and all kinds of catfish. In addition to smaller catfish and fillets there were huge two foot long black catfish with menacing looks. If one of these was on the end of my fishing line, I’d probably have heart failure. Sam’s Wines and Liquors was in a tiny space and seem to have some interesting wines, but this isn’t my area of expertise. They also carried grape Nehi and Delaware Punch. Taylor’s Sausage had a large selection of sausage, in addition to ground sausage meat by the pound. You could make your own sausage patties. At this time, between the seafood and the sausages, I was contemplating gumbo. Jacks Meats, Poultry and African foods had an intriguing selection of foods that I had never seen before. I have to tell you, this is the first time I actually saw fresh hog maws (pig stomachs). Looking on the web for recipes, there seem to be some interesting ones for pig maws. Is a maw the same as a pork belly? This looked nothing like the little piece of belly I ate last year at Bizou. There were fresh chitterlings, tripe, oxtails, pigs feet and pigs ears. The cows feet were pretty huge. They also had these gigantic yams from Ghana that looked like they weighed 3 or four pounds each. They also had a number of African canned foods, grains, smoked fish, boney fish and pomo cow skin. What the heck is that? The spice selection was impressive and included ubga, ukwa, ukra, achi, ofor, oziza seeds, uda, uyak, oziza leaves utazi, oha, bitter leave, whole and ground ogbono, whole and ground egulo. What is all this stuff? The butcher said that there was a web site called African cooking, but couldn’t find it. Dropped by G.B. Ratto and was prepared to be disappointed, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. If you are shopping at the farmer’s market it’s a decent source for cheese, pasta and beans. What struck me most were the four types of fresh Feta cheese: French goat, Greek, French and Bulgarian. They also had a nice selection of olives. The olives stuffed with anchovies from Spain were new to me. They also had some decent looking dried pastas and Italian flours and grains. The thing is, however, that so many top markets carry these same items. I think I could buy almost everything at either Andronicos or Berkeley Bowl. They did have some different Italian cheeses and a log of fresh cream cheese. Finally ate at Café 817 which was nice. How are some of the other restaurants at the market like Oaktown Café and Rex? SOMEONE needs to sell ice cream in this area. Also, I was really starting to crave Cajun. Someone should open a Cajun or African restaurant on the street. Here’s a link to KQED’s write up on the Oakland Farmers market. Excellent slide show of pictures that captures the market. Link: http://www.kqed.org/topics/home/cooking/farmers-markets-oldoakland.jsp# Image: http://www.kqed.org/topics/home/cooking/images/oldoakland/oakland40.jpg Fri Jun 27 21:18:59 -0700 2003 0 Stanley Stephan 1 97237 Maw doesn't necessarily mean stomach (and if it did, it would refer to the actual stomach, not the "belly"); it can also mean throat or jaw. Perhaps if it looked like pork belly it was one of these areas. Fri Jun 27 23:16:39 -0700 2003 97229 0 Ruth Lafler 2 97271 You are right. I guess the belly is the outer portion of the pig, where the maw is the actual organ ir innard, so to speak. What ever they were they look like huge pink deflated balloons. Sat Jun 28 16:30:14 -0700 2003 97237 0 Stanley Stephan 1 97244 Googling was tricky, as the spellings weren't always good matches (and egulo apparently means "these" in some language!). Oziza seeds seem to be peppercorns, but possibly a local version. Uda is the dried fruit of a pepper plant (not spicy, but more the shape of a jalapeno than a bell pepper). Best match was ogbono; the link goes to an ogbono soup recipe. Ogbono is apparently "wild mango kernels", used as a thickener. Sounds like a more interesting thickener than cornstarch or flour! Sorry I couldn't find better matches... Link: http://www.congocookbook.com/c0162.html Sat Jun 28 02:36:55 -0700 2003 97229 0 Marc Wallace 2 97272 Thanks for the info Marc and taking the time to do the research. I found a few more ... bitter leaf - A leafy green vegetable that is widely used in soups like Egusi (melon seeds) for its bitter but sweet flavor. Utazi - This is a bitter tasting pale green leaf usually used for flavouring pepper soup. Very sparingly used. It can also be used as a substitute for bitter leaves. It seems that references to African spices turn up the more familier spices like cardamon, coriander and cumin. Thought I'd try a different route and search on African herbs. That got me into medicines and new forms of, well, mood altering herbs. Almost makes me want to live for a while in Africa to experience the local flavors. Almost ... the article below is on one of the products at the market ... pomo, aka cow skin. It turns out that Nigerians are so poor they cant afford meat and found a way to cook the cow skin and make it more or less edible. This is ticking off the government since they don't have enough leather now to export. Sort of ironic that the meat market was selling pomo. Wonder if it was imported. Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1021948.stm Image: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1020000/images/_1021948_cowskin300bbc.jpg Sat Jun 28 16:46:49 -0700 2003 97244 0 Stanley Stephan 1 97245 Glad you enjoyed Oakland's farmer's market--it does have a different personality from the other markets--a little more Asian/African flavor. The fresh figs were my favorite buy today. Did you see the fresh catfish in the truck next to Roti's? You're right re Ratto's--you CAN buy almost everything at Andronico's or the Bowl. But 25 years ago when I started shopping at Ratto's many of their goods were unique and hard to find. Maybe that's why they no longer carry as many items as they used to. Swan's Market is a must-see on my Oakland food tours. Most vendors are ex-Housewife's Market tenants. I find it remarkable that they sell so many parts of the pig--the only thing missing is the oink. So, Stanley, when is your book on Bay Area Farmer's Markets coming out? Sat Jun 28 02:46:11 -0700 2003 97229 0 chowfish 2 97276 I missed the catfish vendor. In a fit of genius I went to the market at high noon on the hottest day of the year. The catfish were gone by then. I'm usually at markets when they open, but logistics didn't allow that this week. I plan to go back sometime early in the morning. That was the same thing I was thinking about Ratto's. The times are changing and you couldn't get these products in normal grocery stores. I still think it had a decent selection, a few unique items and is a good place to stop when at the market. Celery's stop over at Chinatown also seems like a good idea. With Smart and Final around the corner, you could do all your weekly shopping at once. What DID happen to the housewives market? It was someplace I always meant to stop. Too late, I guess. Wasn't there some great pasta shop there? In fact, it's my thought that the pasta vendor that sells at the Ferry Plaza Market had a shop in the housewives market. Sat Jun 28 16:58:35 -0700 2003 97245 0 Stanley Stephan 3 97281 The Housewive's Market was demolished a couple of years ago, and many of the vendors moved to Swan's. The site of the old Housewive's was (is?) to be used for housing--part of J. Brown's plan to move people into downtown Oakland. Since I live in the neighborhood I shop at Ratto's frequently. Last week I asked Elena the manager for a side of smoked salmon, which turned out to be the best smoked salmon I had ever tasted. It was moist, neither too sweet nor too salty, and very flavorful. I've been shopping at Ratto's for forty years and have watched it weather good times, bad times, and a fire. It's still my standard for how a good deli should smell. Sat Jun 28 19:22:06 -0700 2003 97276 0 Michael Rodriguez 3 97292 We were there at the same time Friday--too bad we weren't wearing our Chowhound tshirts or pins! Let me know if you want company next time--I work a block away from the market. (Wonder if they'll be open July 4?) Sun Jun 29 02:18:46 -0700 2003 97276 0 chowfish 1 97258 I think that this is the African cookbook link that the vendor was talking about. It's really good. Link: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Cookbook/about_cb_wh.html Sat Jun 28 12:24:42 -0700 2003 97229 0 Nancy Berry 1 97259 I got a halibut fillet from Hudson for ceviche for dinner yday - it was fresh fresh fresh and delish! I brought a cooler with ice packs so I could also stock up on boudin blanc from Taylor's. some organic red onions and cilantro from the all organic booth whose name I didn't catch and some limes & ginger from Chinatown - great one-stop shopping. Sat Jun 28 12:29:33 -0700 2003 97229 0 Celery