SF Bites

Tuesday night some Bay Area bloggers were the panelists at San Francisco Bites, part of the SF Public Library’s special exhibit/program SF Eats. I blogged about the first panel  discussion in December. That one was much better. When I left the library I thought it wasn’t worth the trip. When I started to write this post I realized it was.

There were maybe 50 people in the audience some of whom left after the first 15 minutes. During the very short Q&A not much about blogging. Many just wanted to know the panelist’s favorite SF restaurant. There was also a discussion of whether Two Buck Chuck cost $2 or $3. Heady stuff!

The moderator was Corinne Dobbas, a dietitian and nutritionist and blogger www.GreenGrapesBlog.com. The panelists were Iso Rabins of www.forageSF.com; Alder Yarrow of www.vinography.com; and, Sabrina Modelle of  www.thetomatotart.com.

Dobbas had a hard time getting some answers out the panelists who often asked “What was the question again.” Can’t blame the panelists. Most of the questions were mundane and easily forgotten. “What’s special about the Bay Area?” Yeah, the Mediterranean climate yields produce all year. Yup, we’re sophisticated foodies. Yes, the east coast food scene is not the same as ours. Next question.

Rabins forages. He was really jazzed. He went herring fishing in the morning for the first time and pulled 100 pounds out of the Bay. Don’t know if I’d eat all of it given the recent warnings of mercury levels in Bay Area tuna and swordfish. You can join him for wild food walks, underground dinners using foraged ingredients, sell him what you forage and he’ll give you half of what he makes on it, attend his underground markets where budding food entrepreneurs can get a start on their food business. The last one drew about 2,000 and the food and music went on from 11 a.m to 2 a.m. the next morning. He’s a busy guy.

Alder blogs about wine and felt out of place. He kept trying to bring his comments back to food. He started blogging in 2007 and has lots of followers. It’s his passion, better than watching TV. Every comment from his audience is a gift and he acknowledges every one! He realized early on that it took the same time to write a post on a good wine as a bad wine and nobody wants to read about the bad wine so he doesn’t review them anymore. Stories are what we remember. While he offers tasting notes and a numerical rating his reviews are about the winemakers, the grapes and how they make great wine. He says that bloggers should be controversial to generate lots of posts. Be outrageous and they’ll keep coming back for more.

Modelle recently went to a bloggers conference. She didn’t think she belonged there because everyone looked so normal. When she was in a band she kept her private life private. As a blogger everyone knows everything about her. She gushed about her Mission neighborhood and all of the wonderful and varied food at her doorstep. She loves to work with exotic ingredients and spends most of her time working out her recipes. Many nights what she and her husband eat for dinner is not what she cooked that day. I can relate after my gnocchi mishap last weekend! Food is social and her best memories are cooking and eating food with those she loves.