The Fuzzy Chef & Friends

Apparently being veggie, or at least pretending to be veggie, or at least talking about being veggie, is back in vogue.  I just got this month's Sunset Magazine and half the recipes in there were vegetarian -- and the food focus of the issue was food for camping.  Even the recipes which were meat had "or tofu" in the ingredients, although how one would "shred" cooked tofu for taco salad is beyond me.

Celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon, too.

Having been around a bit, this feels really familiar.  Kinda like 1993.  We were in a recession then, too, weren't we?  Makes me think that, if the economy ever recovers, everyone who's a 25-year-old vegan now will be all steak and "new comfort food" in 2015. 

Of course, since we are talking about a lot of newly minted vegetarians, there's the usual dietary flailing about.  Meat substitutes, tons of tofu and pasta, unsustainable combination diets, and mostly not knowing how to cook.  This is another repeat of the 90's; if you don't like to cook, you're not going to stay a veg.  It requires too much thought and time in the kitchen. 

Nowhere is this more in evidence than Portland, Oregon, the nation's City of Vegetarians (not the Vegetarian Capitol, which for historical reasons is Ithaca, New York).  With the rest of us squares eating meatless meals, Portland has to do one better, and now every restaurant in Stumptown has a vegan section on the menu.  Alongside the "gluten-free" section.  It's surreal; nowhere on Earth has so many special diets which don't involve ordained religious leaders.

It's also the only place where someone will call me a caveman for eating eggs.  Anne Hathaway would fit right in.

As a non-meat-eater myself, this swing toward the herbivorous pole is certainly convenient.  I don't have to check restaurant menus in advance to make sure I can eat something, except for a few ethnicities.  Even the French Laundry now has a vegetarian option.  But I can't get too comfortable, since I know it'll swing back with a vengeance once people can afford more meat again, or when a new diet fad hits.

Besides, you know what?  The vegan cupcakes are surprisingly good.

The Sony Metreon, having failed dismally at its original mission as a "techno-mall", has been taken over by those champion mall-redevelopers from Australia, Westfield.  And having looked around at what sells in San Francisco, Westfield has decided to make the Metreon into a food mall to serve Moscone Center.

Good enough, but you have to wonder if Westfield is targeting the Ferry Building, one of the few venues in town they don't run.

Anyway, to inaugurate this venture, tommorrow they are officially opening the Island Earth Farmers Market in the Metreon.  From 10am on they'll have free food, balloons and all kinds of "stuff" to kick it off.

I'm curious to see if SF can actually accept an indoor farmer's market, and for that matter where they're going to put the 160 vendors who have supposedly signed up.  Pictures this weekend.

The online foodie community has been abuzz lately about apparently substantiated claims that review website Yelp! has been "extorting" businesses to advertise or face bad reviews.

There seems to be quite a stir about this, but all of the claims seem to come from two sets of customers: East Bay merchants who where threatened with bad reviews, and Chicago-area merchants who were badgered to hold Yelp Elite parties. All the other buzz is just repeats of these two sources.

As a Yelp! poster myself, I want to know: should I stop using the site? Let's do some deduction.

Man, the Burning Man geeks are going to miss out on a lot this year.