SF: Taste3 & Sound

TASTE3
Read movers and shakers in the food & beverage world converging on the lush wine country that is Napa for 2 days. This conference brought the thinkers into the equation for a good mix of ideas, questions and of course amazing food. Sponsored by the Robert Mondavi winery and held at COPIA in Napa. We spent 2 days pouring bevvies and talking to some interesting people like a man who gave a lecture recently on the health benefits of polyphenols. I reconnected with a man who I consider to be the most knowledgeable about tea. At this conference his talk revolved around earthworms’ importance in cultivating great soil. A woman spoke about the patriotic phenomenon (and history) that is Chinese food. A man described the necessity that our future and (forward-thinking) current selves will need to call upon vertical farming. He gave an interesting statistic about how many of us will be urbanites in the future. Ted of T*op C*hef and I dialogued about countertops that are durable, not uber-expensive and got all riled up. (FYI- he reminds me so much of my friend Pennington. They would be fast friends if he happened to be a gamer) Michael, one of my fave. culinary writers got tickled as yours truly found her mouth blabbering on and on about how much I loved his book “Soul…” He even kissed me on the cheek. I was smitten with the life of Napa, so serene and carefree, the food so just-plucked-early-this-morning. As we were about to part ways from the conference, the lady at S*charffen B. and I exchanged ideas about how to cook up the freshly ground cacao beans into something scrumptious. Living in the Bay Area leaves much to entice!

GOOD MAGAZINE, SF BLOCK PARTY
I loved the premise of this magazine when I first stumbled upon it several years back. The gist: purchase a subscription and the money goes to the non-profit of your choice. The content involves interesting angles on topics that promote dialogue and further exploration. Thus they set out to have a block party at 1*11 Minna, which is a rocking location all other 364 days of the year, no doubt. We were situated across from the main stage, so I had the best spot (standing on a chair, looking above all the onlookers heads) in the house. I have new music crushes on the sounds emanating from the Morning Benders and the Airborne Toxic Event, not to mention my hips shaking right along to the tunes being mixed by DJ Vin Sol. The Morning Benders lead singer has this interesting voice that has a touch of Rufus Wainwright threading over alternative pop songs. His guitar and his bassist both have a Britney Spears name sticker emblazoned on them. Why- because they like her. Way to give props! Okay all the guys in the Airborne Toxic Event are hot. And they play killer music. The token girl plays a mean tambourine, brass and keys while looking very hip. They got the crowd to leave the bar and come outside. I liked that every song felt distinct and had a good rhythm, sense of purpose. I would definitely go see both of them again and recommend you look them up on facebook. Not a shabby way to spend a Sunday afternoon!