Bread & Puppet Theater / Press 2008 Mail Order Catalog

Bread & Puppet -

 

My Tofu House - San Francisco, California - Menu

Curious about this restaurant - I drove by a few times and picked up this menu. The frequent pork on the menu had me suspicious but on deeper reading of the menu some interesting vegetarian items. Hope it is still in business when I return.

 

Here is a link to their web site - 

http://mytofuhouse.org/

Plants Looking For New Homes

Organic and cheap -
Plants that I would like to pass along - for cheap! As in: Free! I have brought them all indoors but would like to free up some space. There are a total of five plants - two avocados (one tall, one bushier), one rubber plant and two big broad leaf tropicals - bird's nest ferns? The pictures were taken on December 8, 2011 - a warm day here in DC. I took the plants outside to spray them with a neem oil solution and a vegetable oil solution. They have also been treated for ants with boric acid. All inside now.


They are all tough plants - able to stand all sorts of stress although the avocados are thirsty. The rubber plant can withstand the strangest water regimen including drought, the big leaf things likewise. They are like camels; never know where the next drink will come from. The avocados do require water often. Otherwise very forgiving.


The following are two different plants - one in a red container the other in a black container. They are big.







I think the discoloration is from near frost - perhaps pest control oil - watching it now that it is inside.

Following are two avocados and a rubber plant:

Pathogens Everywhere

D.C. farmers markets highlight an array of food safety issues

By Esther French, Mattea Kramer and Maggie Clark, Published: July 22

Outside the Department of Agriculture headquarters on Independence Avenue SW, government workers and tourists shop for fresh produce, poultry, popcorn, baked goods and hot lunches.

Like farmers markets across the country, this one sponsored by the USDA is thriving, propelled by a national craving for fresh food and the perception that locally grown food is healthier than food mass-produced by big agriculture and sold in grocery stores.

But commercial tests found pathogens on raw chickens sold by a Virginia farmer at the USDA market; the pathogens could be harmful if the poultry is not properly cooked, according to an investigation by News21, a national university reporting project at the University of Maryland. The same was true of poultry sold by a Pennsylvania farmer at a Vermont Avenue NW market.

Both farmers were exempt from USDA inspections because they process fewer than 20,000 chickens a year, although farmers operating under the exemption are not permitted by USDA regulations to sell their products across state lines, officials said.

A USDA spokesman said the department has suspended poultry sales by the vendor at its market as it conducts an investigation.

The director of FreshFarm Markets, the nonprofit organization that operates the market on Vermont Avenue, said FreshFarm requires USDA inspection of all meat for sale at the market. Ann Yonkers, the director, said she was unaware that the farmer’s chickens were exempt from inspection and asked him to stop selling them.

The findings from both markets highlight seams in the federal government’s efforts to keep the country’s food supply safe through a maze of federal, state and local laws that can be confusing even for the people charged with enforcing them. They also illustrate the danger for consumers who think they can find refuge in markets selling food grown locally.

Despite the interest in food from local growers, scientists say small does not mean safe. “From a food-safety point of view, there’s no inherent reason why large production is, on balance, more dangerous than a small family farm,” said Bill Keene, a senior epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division.

Benjamin Chapman, a food-safety specialist at North Carolina State University, said that in some cases small farms may be less safe. “We’re finding that there’s less pressure on a vendor at a [farmers] market to implement risk reduction because the perception is that the product is safe already,” he said. “At a grocery store, growers have all these specifications they have to hit, but that’s absent in the farmers market.”

Tests conducted for News21 by the Baltimore division of Microbac, a federally certified laboratory with locations nationwide, found salmonella in three samples of chicken being sold at the USDA market by J&L Green, a farm in Edinburg, Va.

“Our process as a whole is sanitary when operated correctly,” said Jordan Green, one of the farm’s owners. “Mistakes do happen.”

Green said he had recently noticed his plastic bags of fresh chicken leaking at the farmers market. He said it was hard to keep bags from tearing and, as a result, he was moving away from fresh and toward frozen poultry.

Leaky poultry juices present a cross-contamination hazard at a farmers market, where shoppers may also be buying peaches or lettuce and placing their purchases in the same canvas bag. Because produce is often eaten uncooked, pathogens would not be killed.

At the market on Vermont Avenue, Microbac found campylobacter on chicken sold by Garden Path Farms of Newburg, Pa. Emanuel Kauffman, the farm’s owner, said he believes his farming practices are safer than big agriculture’s.

It is not against the law to sell raw chicken with salmonella or campylobacter. Regulators instead have placed the responsibility on consumers to understand the importance of cooking thoroughly and avoiding cross-contamination of other foods. A USDA official said the department’s consumer education efforts are vigorous and ongoing.

But the government’s efforts have failed to reduce the number of salmonella infections in 15 years, even as other food-borne illnesses have dropped.

Salmonella, which doesn’t discriminate between small and large farms, is a pathogen sometimes found in the intestinal tracts of birds and other animals. On chicken farms, it can spread from bird to bird or can be introduced by wild animals. During slaughter and processing, salmonella on one chicken can contaminate many more.

Salmonella is invisible, odorless and tasteless, so even the most careful farmers might not know their chicken carries the pathogen, unless they test for it.

The same goes for campylobacter, which is even more prevalent in chickens. The pathogen is one of the leading bacterial causes of diarrhea in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Microbac also found salmonella or campylobacter in chicken parts sold by another local vendor and two grocery chains a short distance from the U.S. Capitol.

Altogether, five out of seven markets and grocery stores tested positive for campylobacter, and two of the five also tested positive for salmonella. It demonstrates how easy it is to find pathogens — no matter which market or grocery store a consumer patronizes.

In 2009, an annual Food and Drug Administration retail meat study found 21 percent of chicken breasts contaminated with salmonella and 44 percent with campylobacter.

The findings come at a time of increased federal concern over food-borne infections linked to the two pathogens, which the CDC says are two of the most commonly reported causes of food-borne illness.

A 2011 CDC study estimated that 1.8 million people are sickened, 27,000 are hospitalized and 400 die each year from both pathogens combined.

Because J&L Green, the Virginia farm selling chickens at the USDA market, operates under the exemption for small farms, no government inspector had looked at the way Jordan Green and his wife, Laura, raise and slaughter chickens, Green said. The USDA generally reviews exempt operations only if it receives a complaint.

Farmers decide whether they want to operate under an exemption from inspections. They do not, however, have to notify the USDA that they have claimed an exemption. The agency does not keep track of exemptions. However, state governments can have their own rules. Virginia, for example, requires farmers to fill out a two-page application, which Green said he did not know about but has now submitted. He also has paid for his own salmonella tests.

When the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service accepted J&L Green into its farmers market this year, officials failed to catch that he was not registered for the Virginia exemption he claimed and that he was breaking federal and state rules by transporting exempted poultry across state lines for sale.

The farmers market manager, Velma Lakins, said she was aware that J&L Green Farm labeled its chicken as exempt. She said she thought that exempted chicken could be transported across state lines, as did two regional USDA officials interviewed by News21.

Also at the USDA market, C&T Produce of Fredericksburg, another vendor, was observed selling unrefrigerated eggs, even though egg cartons bore USDA-mandated labels stating that they should be refrigerated.

Lakins said in an interview that she saw the eggs in coolers with ice packs. But Craig DeBernard, who co-owns C&T with his wife, Tracy, said he had not known the eggs had to be refrigerated and did not do so. C&T has stopped selling eggs at farmers markets during hot summer months and will sell them in an iced cooler in the fall.

Esther French, Mattea Kramer and Maggie Clark are fellows with News21, a university journalism program run in cooperation with the Carnegie Corp. and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-farmers-markets-highlight-an-array-of-food-safety-issues/2011/07/18/gIQAROXZTI_story.html

Food Truck Expansions

In D.C., the cart before the diner

By Danielle Douglas, Published: July 10

Farhad Assari had every intention of opening a restaurant in the District last year. After months of perfecting recipes for Mexican fish tacos and Indian butter chicken, the investment banker turned chef was ready to introduce his international cuisine to the world.

Assari toured sites along K Street and in Dupont Circle. He even commissioned local architecture firm Core to design the space. Plans changed once Assari was introduced to food trucks on a visit to New York City.

“The financial risks were substantially lower than starting a restaurant,” said Assari, who launched his mobile eatery, Sauca, in February 2010. Getting the restaurant off the ground would have run him a cool $1 million, whereas he launched the food truck for one- tenth of that cost. “It was a better way for me to confirm my concept.”

With 10,000 Twitter followers and six trucks under his belt, Assari was ready to pursue his original plan: to open a restaurant. A few weeks ago, he turned on the lights at Sauca’s first brick-and-mortar location, a 3,500-square-foot store at 4707 Columbia Pike in Arlington.

Assari is among a handful of mobile food providers turning to fixed sites to grow their businesses, while keeping the wheels spinning on their trucks. Their evolution comes as some established restaurants work the other side of the street. Austin Grill, Dangerously Delicious Pies and others have begun to roll out food trucks of their own. So is local restaurateur Bo Blair, who is readying his own food truck to serve chow based on two of his District-based establishments: Surfside and Jetties.

Burning both ends of the candle comes with its challenges, namely operating costs and management. Still, the food truck movement shows no signs of slowing down.

And why would it? Food trucks are a hot local trend — like cupcakes, burgers and frozen yogurt. Just stroll over to Farragut Square on a Friday, where you can expect a lengthy wait in line at any of the dozen trucks parked around the District park. Or check out Truckeroo, the monthly festival of food trucks founded by Blair that drew more than 18,000 people for its debut last month.

It’s difficult to peg exact sales figures for the nascent mobile-meals industry, but the rising number of trucks on the street is telling. Randy Shore, co-founder of the strEATS, has tracked 67 vehicles currently on the road, compared to 29 when he and Daniel Preiss launched their online truck tracker last August.

The proliferation of food trucks has drawn the ire of several neighborhood groups and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which are calling on the city to curb the growth and impose sales taxes on these vendors. Both sides are still hashing it out as legislation to update regulations surrounding food trucks snakes its way through D.C. government.

Alongside the influx of trucks, the nascent trend of operators launching mobile and stationary eateries is growing.

Pi Pizzeria, a St. Louis outfit, is gearing up for the August debut of its restaurant in Penn Quarter, six months after arriving in the District with a food truck. Owner Chris Sommers entered the market with plans for a fixed site, but figured a mobile operation would drum up business while the $2.1 million project was under way.

“We wanted the truck to be a marketing tool for our brick-and-mortar, build some excitement around our brand to open with a bigger bang,” said Sommers, who runs four restaurants and another food truck in St. Louis. “It allowed us to get our feet wet in the market.”

The District truck cost $30,000 and pulls in roughly $1,000 a day from sales of the deep-dish pizza. Judging by the endless posts in the blogosphere buzzing about the restaurant’s pending opening (there have been construction delays), Sommers seems to have achieved the desired attention.

The Internet, namely Twitter, has been a driving force behind the food truck evolution, and a useful tool as operators set up actual restaurants. Assari credits his strong following on Twitter with the stream of customers at Sauca’s Arlington location. Having an existing client base and revenue from the trucks helped Assari get off the ground, though he did sell two vehicles to finance the $750,000 opening.

Osiris Hoil, owner of District Taco, also used a portion of the sales from his food cart to finance the November launch of his 70-seat diner at 5723 Lee Highway in Arlington. Hoil debuted his cart in June 2009, thanks to a $50,000 investment from his neighbor, Marc Wallace.

With the success of the Yucatan-style Mexican meals, Wallace made back the investment money in a year and the two began scouting sites for a stationary operation. To keep expenses down, Hoil, a former construction worker, completed most of the $180,000 build-out himself.

He estimates the eatery serves about 700 people daily at an average tab of $10, while the cart is pulling in 180 customers a day. “I really enjoy both sides of the business,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the taco stand, the restaurant wouldn’t be successful.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/in-dc-some-food-truck-operators-begin-to-move-into-restaurants/2011/07/06/gIQAUF8M7H_story.html

The Politics Of Kosher

How kosher is D.C.’s kosher food truck?

By Steve Hendrix and Michelle Boorstein, Published: May 20

David Weinberg had planned to be first in line to buy a nice corned beef sandwich from the kosher food truck that opened Friday in Washington. The Web consultant has long lamented the lack of kosher cooking downtown and, as a foodie, was thrilled to hear that “Top Chef” contestant Spike Mendelsohn would have a hand in the deli on wheels.

But when a block-long line formed at the truck in its first hour, Weinberg was not in it. He had called the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington, the area’s main certifier of Jewish restaurant kitchens, to ask whether it was all right to patronize Sixth & Rye, the mobile eatery launched by the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

“Unfortunately, they said no,” said Weinberg, 29. “I’m always excited to have a new kosher restaurant open up, and food trucks are just this awesome local food thing that is happening. But I assumed, wrongly, that it would be under the Vaad. Until it is, I can’t eat there.”

Perhaps it was inevitable when a hipster food trend crossed paths with 3,000 years of dietary tradition, but the debut of a van dispensing nouvelle slaw and high-end challah has caused a debate worthy of Talmudic scholars: Is the kosher food truck kosher?

For now, the silver panel van will not bear the blue and black “K” that would mark it approved by the Washington Vaad. The group supervises more than a dozen kosher restaurants in the region, including the cafeteria at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But after several months of negotiations, the Vaad declined to certify the truck as kosher, according to the synagogue.

“The food is all completely kosher, but it seemed to come down to the ownership of the truck,” said Sixth & I director Esther Safran Foer. “We rent the truck from somebody who is not Jewish,” who will use it to serve non-kosher food the rest of the week. The Vaad was “concerned that he not be in the truck while we are serving. But he has to be. He owns the truck and holds the license.”

A spokesman for the Vaad wouldn’t speak about the group’s reasons for withholding approval.

“Unfortunately, despite our putting significant effort into the project, it ultimately did not meet the standards of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington,” which oversees the Vaad, said Rabbi Binyamin Sanders, who runs the kosher certification program for the council.

But interpretation of kosher law is often in the rye of the beholder. Other scholars had no problem with the truck’s ownership and staffing. The synagogue found an orthodox rabbi in Baltimore to sign off.

“I have a lot of respect for the Vaad, and we hope to work with them in the future, but we had to get rolling,” Foer said as she looked at the line of several dozen waiting to order. “And we are!”

The truck served more than 350 orders in two hours.

Whose stamp to trust

For most of the inaugural diners noshing along the curb, the lack of a local kosher seal of approval was less important than the texture of the rye and the crunch of the home-fried potato chips. Even the Jewish customers seemed unconcerned by the dispute.

“I came for a corned beef sandwich,” said Zach Pleat, 28, who moved to the District two years ago from south Florida and has been tracking the food truck’s planned arrival on Twitter. “I haven’t had any good Jewish deli food since I came to D.C.”

His officemate, Leslie Rosenberg, 25, said the kosher tradition isn’t important to most of her Jewish friends.

“For my age group, I know literally one person who keeps kosher,” she said.

But for strict kosher keepers in Washington, the disagreement means they have to decide whose kosher stamp to trust.

Some, like Weinberg, said they won’t partake until the local Vaad gives the truck the all clear. Others said the out-of-town certification was just fine with them.

“I’m willing to trust Sixth & I,” said Sharon Beth Kristal, 38, a contractor for the U.S. Marshals Service who was in line at the truck. A conservative Jew who keeps kosher, she normally orders only fish or vegetables when she eats out. “I’m delighted to have another place to have meat other than at home.”

The synagogue, which plans to operate the truck each Friday, insists it will be run on strict kosher principles. Each Thursday, the truck will be thoroughly scrubbed with hot water, and the stainless steel counters will be covered with butcher paper. The utensils, all of which have been dipped in a mikvah, a purifying bath, will be segregated by use. Ingredients, all kosher, will be stored in locked cabinets and coolers in the synagogue’s kitchen.

A mashgiach, or supervising rabbi in the employ of the certifying rabbi in Baltimore, will keep the keys and be on hand to monitor the cleaning and serving. The synagogue will pay for his services, Foer said.

A choice of supervision

Some Washington area rabbis were outspoken in support of the truck’s kosher bona fides. In response to questions from several congregants, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Sholom Synagogue in Northwest posted a message on his Facebook page saying Sixth & I was good to go.

“I’m eating there,” Herzfeld said in an interview. “In fact, I’m getting 12 or 15 sandwiches for the Torah class I’m teaching on Capitol Hill.”

Herzfeld also bypassed the local Vaad when it came to certifying the kitchen at his synagogue.

“They’re doing a lot of very good and informed and important work,” he said. “But they are not the only ones capable of providing supervision. My own kitchen is supervised by me.”

Some observant Jews said they could have predicted that the issue would become political.

“None of us are surprised that this was not easy,” said rabbi Shira Stutman, director of community outreach at Sixth & I.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-kosher-is-dcs-kosher-food-truck/2011/05/20/AFC1V27G_story.html

Should Street Vendors Charge Sales Tax?

Food trucks may lose their sales tax exemption

By Jonathan O’Connell, Friday, March 11, 10:56 PM

In almost any weather, food trucks trawl the city's commercial areas, greeted by hungry office workers in search of the lobster rolls, cupcakes and tacos that have become intensely popular since the mobile eateries recently began proliferating en masse.

The truck owners peddle their edible wares, however, without doing something the city's brick-and-mortar restaurant owners must do: pay sales taxes.

But that could change.

D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) plans to introduce legislation Tuesday, March 15, that would end the sales tax exemption for food trucks, requiring them to pay the same 10 percent tax as restaurants and other prepared food sellers.

“What the bill is intended to do is charge sales tax for all vendors, not just the food trucks but everybody,” Evans said.

The number of food trucks has grown dramatically in the last two years and Evans, chairman of the council's finance and revenue committee, said the system of charging them just $1,500 per year in fees, devised in the early 1990s, is obsolete. According to the city, there are now 488 “roadway vendors,” which include food trucks, ice cream trucks and other food sellers operating on the National Mall. There are an additional 642 “sidewalk vendors,” which include many long-running hotdog and T-shirt stands. All of the vendors currently pay the $1,500 annual fee, but Evans's bill would require them to all pay sales taxes instead.

Evans also said the current system is “no longer fair or working” for brick-and-mortar restaurants, which in addition to sales taxes also often pay for additional services from business improvement districts. But he said he was open to discussions about how best to both level the playing field and collect badly needed tax revenue from mobile vendors. “I recognize that there are a lot of issues involved here,” he said.

Kristi Whitfield, co-owner of the Curbside Cupcakes food truck, agreed that the guidelines are antiquated and need updating but said a sales tax would hurt her business -- and not just because of the costs that she would pass on to customers. Not having to compute a sales tax, for instance, allows her to only handle bills (no coins), keep her line moving and see many customers. “So much of what we do has to do with respecting people's time and operating efficiently,” she said.

Whitfield also called the idea that food trucks have a competitive advantage over restaurants an “illusion,” pointing to limits on the size of food trucks, where they can stop and how they can restock. “There are a myriad of benefits that restaurants have in regard to stocking and points of distribution that food trucks don't have,” she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/capital_business/food-trucks-may-lose-their-sales-tax-exemption/2011/03/11/ABK1WXR_story.html