SF's Upper Crust Boast Toast; Seeds of War Flour Into Rising Struggle; Feelings Soured Over Naan-issue but Bread Broken; A Real Doughn't Miss!

As Ron Perlman uttered in Fallout, “War. War never changes.” Accordingly, the fourth major theater of the San Francisco Food Wars stormed on today at Thirsty Bear. Herbs, cheeses, grains, and nuts fleshed out the theme: Yeast Affliction — that’s bread disease to you and me.

Sourdough was, as one might expect of an SF event, a competitive genre. Palo Alto’s Mayfield Bakery had a particularly wonderful sourdough and Jen Rosa took the gold for her Rosemary Sourdough — a well earned victory.

Your correspondents’ personal pick of the show was Wild Yeast‘s Semolina Sourdough with Fennel, Currants, and Pine Nuts. Seriously, that was some amazing shit.

And the enticingly named “Hurricane” (not pictured) totally deserved people’s choice: brown rice and seaweed! The seaweed was intense but with a slab of butter proved perfectly balanced. Your correspondents can’t wait for the recipes to be released.

The Fancy Boyz easily swept up the coveted Mission Mission best-dressed award. Their fermented Pain a l’Ancienne wasn’t half-bad neithers.

It wasn’t all buttery and fluffy, though. While Stable’s yard is large enough to allow for mingling, Thirsty Bear couldn’t really handle the volume. Any time your correspondents tried to stop and enjoy the bread, we were accidentally blocking someone or unintentionally in line for something. While the event was fun, we hope future battles retreat back to Stable.


Photography by Ashleigh Cole

Any of y’all go?

Pizza Zone 'N' Grill Is Down With The Kids Today

Pizza Zone (‘N’ Grill!) on Duboce and Valencia.

Look, I’m not going to pretend I know anything about street art. The closest I got to “tagging” was repeatedly drawing the Stüssy S all over my binder in 7th grade.

But I think it’s really tacky when businesses paint their signs in graffiti text. It reminds me of those arcade machines in the 90′s that would show you a tag-font “Stay In School” splash screen when they started up. Even then I was cynical enough to see through their ridiculous attempt to appeal to my “urban” side.

Toshio Hirano @ The Rite Spot Cafe Tonight

Sure, we’ve sung praises for the yodelin’ Japanese cowboy Toshio Hirano before, but I just found this video profile of him done by PRI that deserves some attention:

Toshio has a charisma and passion for music that is really sobering to all the cynical young musicians like myself. Here’s a guy who loved classic country music so much that he literally up and moved straight to the source. (Ok, so my love of burritos may have moved me from the east bay to San Francisco, but that’s not exactly the same thing.)

He’s no fool either, he’s well aware that there’s quite a bit of the novelty/freak show draw to his act. But hey, if that’s what it takes to get people to come out and see him doing what he loves, then he’s ok with that. Oh, and his between-song banter is hilarious… that’s no act. This man is funny.

Toshio will be playing tonight as part of his monthly residency at the Rite Spot Cafe on 17th and Folsom from about 9pm-12. Go get your two-step on.

Killer Heels

I tried to tell Penelope Popsicle that these golden-Beretta-heeled kicks of hers are only almost as good as designer Iris Schieferstein’s golden-revolver-heeled Gun Hoofs, but Penelope retorts that whereas Schieferstein’s shoes are just art pieces, these babies you can actually buy at Shiekh Shoes right here in the Mission!! Awesome point!

Missed Connections, Mission/Castro

“You had such an opportunity!  Why didn’t you go for it?”

“I dunno.  I guess I’m sad.”

Mission Throwback, 1998: Punks in Swim Trunks

Photographer Karoline Collins this morning took us back in time to the summer of 1998 and some kind of punk picnic in which a bunch of Mission kids piled into a van and went up north somewhere to catch some rays and have a swim.

“This is the first time I can remember seeing lots of punk rockers in bathing suits,” says the photographer. It’s a rare sight, right? Happy Friday!!

Previously:

Flashback: Mission Hipster, 2003

Throwback: Mission, 1989

Throwback: Mission, 1975

Friday Is Accordion Day

photo by Eric Wolfinger - http://ericwolfinger.com/

Move over gamelan! Accordion is the new hotness. Marié Abe plays at Tartine Bakery on Fridays (TONIGHT) from 6-8pm. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to type anything else since after seeing the HOTT picture above I’m sure you have already left this site and you’re totally myspace-stalking the shit out of her.

Marié is from Japan and was April in 2009′s Accordion Babes Calendar. She plays in a ton of groups including the Japonize Elephants, Tango No. 9, and Thorny Brocky. Most of her music is pretty damn heavy and experimental, but at Tartine they keep it a bit more accessible for the baked goods crowd with jazz, Brazilian choros, French musette waltzes, and such. She’ll be joined by Darren Johnson (Nice Guy Trio, Brass Menazeri) and Lisa Mezzacappa. No cover, so tip well.

And if that’s not enough accordion for you, head over to Amnesia from 7-9pm for Rob Reich and Craig Ventresco right afterwards, playing some good old ragtime, blues, and early jazz.

Mini Bike Cabaret this Saturday Night

Update! Agent Chaos of The Derailleurs is here to spread the word that there is a Bike Dance Cabaret in town. The Derailleurs will be debuting their Tweed Ride Polo Dance Movie and also the Derailleurs Coloring Book.

Come see what the saucy cyclists have cooked up for you.

Dance performances by the Derailleurs, the Bombshells (punk rock burlesque), and the Cheese Puffs (lounge burlesque)

Live music by The Nerv (hard hitting, straightforward inspirational punk), Jessie Roadkill (quirky singer-songwriter), and Tongue and Teeth (haunting and passionate)

Dance music by DJs Zelko (of Kafana Balkan), Miss Rowdy (booty), and Mega Bitch (more booty)

When: Jan. 30th

Where: The Box Factory 865 Florida #1 @ 21st

How Much: $7

[photo by derailleurs]

Vegan Outrage Over New Weird Fish Menu

I’m not vegan, but I enjoy vegansaurus, thus I support vegansaurus’ vegan outrage over the new Weird Fish menu.  Take it away, vegansaurus!:

Sorry, I’m all about fostering open communications and being awesome about local restaurants with vegan options but FUCK YOU, WEIRD FISH. You cannot giveth fried seitan and then taketh away. Oh and replace it with a shaved papaya salad. You can shaved papaya GO TO HELL-A. That doesn’t even make sense but I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW.

Oh yes and no more lunch or brunch. I hate my life.

Yeah!  Get ‘em!  But also: wtf, Weird Fish?

P.S. I’m pretty sure the ‘saurus pictured is Trey Anastasio from Phish. We can assume he’s vegan (hippie!), making him a highly appropriate vegansaurus, right?  Also: Weird Phish?  Not to brag, but I’m SO GOOD at image selection.

Pedestrian Struck by Taxi on Market; Muni gives up

Biking to work down Market today, I noticed the Muni buses begin to pile up.  It was rather narrow to squeeze through but fairly safe since traffic was stagnant.  The drivers all had their doors open and were casually chatting with one another, and some were even hanging outside their buses.  Looks like this was a good day to take the Letters, unlike yesterday.

I finally approached the scene, but only emergency vehicles and the offending taxi remained.  However, my friend Aiko-Sophie witnessed the ordeal and provides the following account:

I was on the 21 and saw a pedestrian that had just been hit by a taxi.  His head was resting on the curb with his body still in the street.  Blood was coming from the back of his head.  His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving.

Doesn’t sound very good.  Let’s hope this turns out ok.  Please be careful when crossing the street, pedestrians!  Those taxis can be maniacs, but you would not believe how many pedestrians just blindly cross Market street right in front of my bike (without looking) every week!

The taxi in question can be seen being inspected here.  MORE PHOTOS of the scene of the crime after the jump (always wanted to say that):

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