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Bacon Is Not a Vegetable

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You can’t encourage other people to eat a diet that’s better for them and the planet by getting all vegangelical on them.

By Jill Richardson / Other Words

As a vegetarian, I have to walk a fine line.

Really, I’m not judging you. But I often find it necessary to establish myself as “not a threat” to meat eaters. I also occasionally bump up against militant vegans.

Consider this collision I had the other day with a devout vegangelical. While at a potluck among an omnivorous group that included a woman who raises and slaughters chickens and turkeys for meat, I tried to politely excuse myself for not partaking in most of the food.

“I’m vegetarian,” I said. “Well, mostly vegetarian.”   [Read more…]

Cheap Corn Permeates Every Facet of the American Diet

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By John Lawrence

Corn is the staple of the US agricultural system and food supply. It’s in everything we eat unbeknownst to many Americans.

Corn feeds steers that become steak and fast food hamburgers. Corn feeds chickens and pigs – even catfish, salmon and tilapia. Milk, cheese and yogurt that once came from cows that grazed on grass now come from Holsteins that spend their time tethered to milking machines while munching on corn.

Processed foods contain even more corn than so-called “natural” foods. Take chicken nuggets, for example. Not only the chicken itself but the corn starch that holds it together, the corn flour in the batter, the corn oil in which its fried, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di- and triglycerides, the golden coloring, the citric acid that keeps it fresh – all these ingredients come from corn.

Any soft drink in the supermarket including Coke and Pepsi contains High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) so you can wash down your corn with some more corn. A quarter of the 45,000 items in the average supermarket contain corn.   [Read more…]

The Wild Widows Return to Old Town Part 1: O’Hungry’s Restaurant

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By Judi Curry
For those of you have read my articles before you know that I belong to two support groups that I joined after my husband died. Strangely enough, today (April 5th) was Irene’s birthday; it was Ro’s anniversary, and it was also my anniversary. Rather than stay home and feel sorry for ourselves, we decided to make a day of visiting Old Town – as we did several months ago. This is a synopsis of our visit.

We were on our way to the Old Town Mexican Café when we crossed the street in front of O’Hungry’s. It looked virtually empty – strange for 11:00am on a Saturday morning, so we decided to stop in and eat there. I’ll tell you – it is hard to beat the prices of their breakfasts.
  [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Bistro 60

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Bistro 60
5987 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
619-287-8186

Some time ago, I remember going to San Diego Desserts to talk to the owners about allowing some of my culinary arts students from San Diego Job Corps to do an internship with them. The bakery had been recommended highly by my two culinary arts chefs, and we thought it would be a wonderful experience for the students. Shortly after meeting with the owners, I left San Diego for a position at Penobscot Job Corps in Maine and do not know if our students had the intern experience there or not.

Much later, around 2008 or so, I heard that people could eat their desserts in the restaurant, and it was obvious that it was no longer just a wholesale bakery. Later on I heard that food had been added to the menu, and then wine, and beer, etc.

Recently, a friend and I purchased tickets to the Moxie theater just down the street from the bistro, and it gave me a perfect opportunity to drop in and have dinner before the opening curtain.   [Read more…]

The Time to Plant is NOW

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Gardening, America’s New Front Porch

By Susan Taylor

Here in San Diego, the rains have been and gone, we’re back to Daylight savings time and can get to planting. Before anyone dashes off for seeds and/or plant starts, let’s lay a little groundwork.

By groundwork, I mean preparing the soil. Sounds like a dull task, I know, but well prepared soil makes gardening so much easier and more fun! Find your growing spots, whether they be pots, troughs, beds, or in the nearby ground. If using containers, be sure to wash them out to rid them of any lingering bugeroos. For any and all containers, try to use fresh soil, and I don’t mean your dirt from the backyard.   [Read more…]

A Sweet Victory

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After two decades of consumer campaigns, the government has agreed to include added sugars on nutrition labels.

By Jill Richardson / OtherWords

The Food and Drug Administration recently came out with a sweet surprise. Its proposed new nutrition label will finally give us a bit of key information we need to understand our food: the amount of added sugars.

If you look at a nutrition label now, you will see how many grams of sugar are in a serving of your food. That includes all sugars. It counts the lactose in milk and naturally occurring sugars from fruit. The nutritionally important bit of info for most of us is not total sugars, but added sugars — which include the sweetener we call “sugar” plus others like high-fructose corn syrup and honey.

In addition to the blueberries and the yogurt in your blueberry yogurt, how much sugar did the manufacturer add? If you’re trying to pick the healthiest yogurt or granola bar, that’s a fact you need to know.   [Read more…]

Poppa’s Fresh Fish Company Brings a Fresh Face to Logan Heights

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By Avital Aboody

If you have ever been to any of the big farmers markets in San Diego (Little Italy, Ocean Beach, Hillcrest) then you have seen Poppa’s Fresh Fish Company. Maybe you have tasted their signature live sea urchin, shared a good laugh with owner Mark Lane, and joined the growing fan club of rare seafood lovers.

If so, you will be pleased to know that after nearly five years selling in farmers markets, Poppa’s Fresh Fish is opening its first storefront location in Logan Heights! The business owner, Mark Lane, is hard at work getting the space ready for their big grand opening, but he took some time out of his hectic schedule to tell me the story of his business and why he is excited to move into the neighborhood.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Jade, Thai and Mandarin

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Jade Thai and Mandarin 
10330 Friars Road #104
San Diego, CA 92120

By Judi Curry

I have done several reviews of restaurants suggested by readers of the San Diego Free Press and/or the OBRag.  One of my readers – Michael – asked me if I had ever gone to the “Jade” before.  I knew where it was on Friars, and remembered eating there but not much about the cuisine.  So I called my friend Jim and asked him if he wanted to join me.  He drove all the way from Oceanside – that’s what friends do for friends – and we arrived at the restaurant at 5:30pm or so.

There were very few other patrons in the restaurant, and not many arrived after we did.  The two servers were delightful and made us feel right at home.  The female waitpersons name was “Angel” and she was; the male was “Nathaniel” and he was very helpful also.   [Read more…]

Sanctuary: 7th Annual Dia de la Mujer Juried Art Exhibition to Open

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An all woman’s art exhibition, a film screening and a very womanly celebration

By Leticia Gomez Franco 

Casa Familiar’s THE FRONT will once again present their annual ode to women, this year called Sanctuary: 7th Annual Dia de la Mujer Art Exhibition. The group art exhibition features the work of 48 female artists from both sides of the border and will be on view from March 7  to April 24.

With over 50 art pieces on view, the exhibition is a wonderful collection of work, inspired by this years theme: Sanctuary. Artists were invited to explore the idea of sanctuary in its many manifestations as it relates to them as women and builders and creators of their own spaces. With this theme the exhibition curator honors the mission of Día de la Mujer. The art exhibition allows women artists to create real representations of themselves, to counter the powerful stream of visual stimulation spat out by the media, oversaturating our world, with foreign, unrealistic versions of women. Día de la Mujer fosters a safe space for women to be real women and to celebrate that realness, in all of its diverse beauty.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Antique Row Cafe

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Antique Row Cafe
3002 Adams Ave.,
San Diego, CA 92116 (Normal Heights)
619-282-9750

By Judi Curry

Some birthdays just go on and on and on.  Particularly those birthdays that you would just as soon forget – like the one I had last week.  (And every day since!)

My neighbors asked to take me out for breakfast at any restaurant of my choosing. I remembered that years ago we went to the” Antique Row Café” and really enjoyed it.  That was my suggestion this time and Nancy and Stuart were willing to drive the distance and try it with me.

It hasn’t changed much since I was there 20+ years ago. They still have the charcoal drawings of many famous personalities on the walls; still dark; and still busy.   [Read more…]

Bikes & Beers: Promoting Bike Friendly Neighborhoods and San Diego’s Craft Brews

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SDFP’s occasional contributor John P. Anderson has joined up with other enthusiasts to start what they hope will be an annual trek through our city’s bike-friendly neighborhoods combined with visits to craft brewers along the way.

They’ve dubbed it Bikes & Beers SD, plotting out a 26-mile bicycling course taking participants through many of San Diego’s most dynamic urban neighborhoods and to some of the region’s most beautiful natural sights. The inaugural event will take place Saturday, March 29th, starting at 9:30 am with following groups at 10, 10:30, and 11.

Starting and ending in North Park, the event course will go through Hillcrest, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Downtown, East Village, Golden Hill, and South Park. Cyclists will enjoy vistas of the San Diego River, Pacific Ocean, San Diego Bay, Petco Park, and Balboa Park.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Carlsbad’s Village Grill

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Village Grill
2833 State Street
Carlsbad, CA  92008
760-729-3601

By Judi Curry

Once again a few members of my support group decided to hop on the Coaster and spend the day in Carlsbad.  We did this last year and really enjoyed ourselves and thought it was time for an encore.

The Coaster left the Old Town Trolley Station at 9:50am and by the time we arrived in Carlsbad we were hungry.  We decided to stop for breakfast before we did anything else, and stopped at the “Village Grill” within shouting distance of where we got off the Coaster.

The restaurant is a funky, outdoor place and when we looked inside there was a small counter and one table indoors. The chefs cooked just behind the counter.   [Read more…]

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