Excellent Gourmet Ghetto Tour for my family visiting from Europe. They had fun discovering the…read moreBerkeley food extravaganza while I was at work. They loved lunch at Cesars. Naomi is funny and a great culinary guide. Great for houseguests and other friends you want to inspire.

I was disappointed that many of the booths ran out of food by 3:30pm when the the event was…read moresupposed to run till 5pm. There were plenty of vinyards w/ tasty wines to sample. The food that I did try was tasty and made me want to try their full menus. The cooking demonstrations were also good.

Chahrshanbeh Souri @ The Persian Center in Berkeley…read more NARRATIVE A few years ago before sleepover with Houman, Michelle and I pestered him about No Rooz and all the festivities that went along with the celebration of the Persian New Year. As members of a multi-culti friendship tribe we begin the New Years season on December 31st and then continue on through March until New Years has exhausted itself into Springtime. Houman mentioned fire jumping. I was intrigued and since I hadn't been to Burning Man in a few years, I was called to the fires! CONTACT INFORMATION The Persian Center 2029 Durant Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 http://www.persiancenter.org/ Phone: (510) 848-0264 HOURS Tuesday before Vernal Equinox, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PRICE RANGE Inexpensive. Traditional Persian cuisine is sold to support the event and the center. SUMMARY This Zorastrian custom dates back to 1300 B.C. It celebrates one of the last evenings of the year and is symbolized by fire so that people can see their way into the new year. Bonfires are lit because they are purifying and can light our way into the new year. In Berkeley Durant is lined with people of all ages talking, laughing, dancing, wishing greetings upon each other, doing the traditional Persian double-cheeked kisses hello and good-bye. Downtown Berkeley is a great venue for the event. Behind Barnes and Noble what is normally a quiet side-street is blocked off and filled with Persian music and flooded with lights. Two sets of bonfires are lit to keep the celebration moving. The DJ and MC are pounding out Persian favourites and new remixes. Parents jump with their young ones who look wary of going near the flames. Sweethearts jump in tandem. Frat boys try to outleap one another in side-by-side races. As the spring crisp air fills your lungs, you look up past the buildings into the deep blue night sky. The moon is lit and the stars begin to speckle the sky. All the while you're bundled in your coat, talking with your friends, and rehearsing the Persian phrase while waiting your turn to jump the bonfires: (Sorkhi-e to az man) Give me your beautiful red colour (Zardi-e man az to) And take back my sickly pallor! Houman wrote it down for us the first year we went. Last year he sent us a reminder and the group of us split between pronouncing it in English and pronouncing it in Persian. Afterwards we all met up at a Chinese restaurant to finish out the evening's festivities. More laughter, more stories. More good times. Don't let the year slip without celebrating another new beginning. Jump the fires on Tuesday night to ring in No Rooz! SERVICE Volunteers are very helpful with guiding newbies to the fire-jumping lines. The atmosphere is FESTIVE! Party down, Persian-stylie! REST ROOMS Port-o-potties by the fire-jumping area or local eateries and bars if you plan ahead. SUGGESTION? Pronunciation guides for the Persian-challenged.

We finally got to check out Chahar Shanbeh Souri to celebrate Persian New Year. I found out about…read moreit on chowhound last year and made sure to put it on my calendar for this year. It was Tues. 3/18/08. We took Bart to Downtown Berkeley and walked down about 3-4 blocks to Durant Ave. The place was crazy busy with DJ Aykut & DJ Dr. T spinning very loud music. There was a flyer saying 4 Shanbeh Soori After Party 9:30p-Close the DJs were going to be at Pasand Lounge, 2280 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley a 5 min. walk from the Persian Center. People line up around the Persian Center to buy food. There were Kabob sandwiches: chicken or beef wrapped like a burrito w/ rice inside & a small half tomato & water or soda for $10. Chicken was dry and boring to eat. You could also get a noodle soup for $5-very minty w/ a sauce another table had & even some sumac you could add or some chopped onions. Soup was ok, hubby liked it more. For dessert Golnazar Persian ice cream sandwiches were $3. It's Saffron ice cream w/ pistachio. Just ok w/ thin crispy wafer like cookie to sandwich the ice cream. Pre-packaged. They also had a 1-pint tub of Faloudeh for $3. It was frozen solid when A. tried to eat it, he had to wait about 15 min to finally try it, he finished it so it must have been ok. The best part was the jumping over the small fires. The line was Crazy long, but it moved fast, near the fires the line finally breaks into 2 lines and you can jump over 3 small flames. Almost anyone can jump over the fire..we did and it was FUN. Then we left, still Recommended at least once.

Thanks to Yelp I was able to get in to the 3rd Annual Vegan Festival in Downtown Berkeley. Regular…read morecost at the door was $20 and I guess it's mostly for the speakers & food demos because you don't get much for that fee. It's only a block away from Downtown Berkeley Bart, next to Taqueria Cancun. They gave some vegan chips & vegan giant cookies at registration. There were a bunch of tables set up around the main area & another room. Most of the food vendors charged money to eat their food, only a few gave samples. Tamale Love - I got a vegan tamale with sweet potato & some mole & green salsa $4 - it was ok, nothing special about it. The Taste of Tea - tiny samples of hot or cold tea Local Love Catering - he sampled out a hot potato soup - it was pretty good. V-Dog - got some samples of vegan dog food - will give to co-workers that have dogs. Beyond Eggs - they made a tasty chocolate chip cookie & gave out sample of something that's like egg just add water. There were talks in the Conf Room; Theater, Main Lobby. I only stayed for the Dr. Alan Goldhamer talk on Avoiding the Dangers (and achieving the benefits) of a Vegan Diet. He was good & talked of avoid sugar, fat, salt, get his book "The Pleasure Trap" I left after a while, went to Cal Day.

Full disclosure - this year I won tickets for BVED, but otherwise probably wouldn't have attended…read more I volunteered to help with the first BVED -- helping the very kind, ambitious and all around awesome Karine B with the event as well as working with James Hall/Raw Daddy at his table. Wow - it's been FIVE years! I haven't been to the David Brower center before -- it's a beautiful lobby, and probably not ideal for a crowd, really. I did check out the itinerary of speakers before the event and the charter for the event implies that it is really more "Vegan 101/201" -- lots of food prep demos and nothing too controversial in the topics. However - if I were a new vegan or interested in going vegan - I'm not sure I would be all that jazzed about paying $20 to go spend more money. It was great to see Raw Daddy there -- and there were plenty of vendors and food samples available. I was surprised to see Synergy there - and ended up spending about $200 at the expo in food & clothing. Since the event charges the vendors a percentage of sales -- as my friend pointed out, "it would be nice if they gave a refund if you spent over a certain amount at the expo" -- certainly that might encourage more people to shop! While most of the expo focused on lifestyle/consumer vegan offerings -- there was table full of very informative and engaging folks from Food Empowerment Project (www.foodispower.org). This sparks my intellectual curiosity as a trained political sociologist (now you know - I'm a marxist) and the volunteer who spoke with me asked me about chocolate. I love chocolate. And, of course - I thought that I knew about what chocolate to eat: fair trade, organic etc. But honestly - with so many excellent vegan candies available at places like Republic of V, I think I just assumed that vendors like Amy E's chocolates or Vega were using fair-trade/organic/equal exchange products. It turns out that the Food is Power folks have a massive list and many vegan food producers are on the "not recommended" or "problematic" list (including Amy E's and Vega!). I'm glad that these events exist - they provide a very important function to new vegans and in exposing more people to vegan lifestyle oriented goods and services.

** The following review reflects my experience DURING the COVID-19 pandemic. **…read more There's an extraordinary new mural on the side of the Oakland Marriott City Center. At 190 feet, it's hard to miss unless you don't look up from your smartphone as you walk by on Broadway. If you do look up, you will be rewarded by the sight of a smiling child grasping a bundle of wheat. It's a beautiful image created by artist Victor Ash, and it serves as a message about world hunger, very well-timed as food banks have been struggling in response to months of the pandemic. Take a moment, look up for yourself, and advocate for #ZeroHunger, a global campaign sponsored by the UN's World Food Organization. RELATED - Exploring Oakland? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/2ObVcpQ

this mural is the tallest, biggest...mural around but it's not the most impressive. it can be…read morepartially seen while driving along highway 880 thru downtown Oakland. i happen to be taking the Boardway turnoff so i saw it. otherwise it's a miss. It's on the left side of the Marriott Hotel. the mural "the child" depicts a happy Black girl running in a field proports to be in support of an UN support to end hunger called "Zero Hunger". Kellogg is a corporate sponsor. i don't see any connection between the mural and the program. maybe it's projects wishful thinking. creator: Victor Ash

the 2 murals are on the 38th Ave. side of Laurel Lounge. both appear to relate to Indigenous…read morepeople. the left mural pictures a 3 faced women on top,. at the bottom is a women sprouting butterfly wings. the right mural shows 3 pairs of males facing each other. each level has different levels of illumination. the top one has a bright yellow sun. the bottom 2 has different symbols and different color scheme. all males look to be indigenuos. i have no idea what the murals mean. am sure they mean something to indigenous people.

Review No. 6…read more SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJFF SFJEWISH FILM FEST SFJFF 29TH ANNIVERSARY SFJFF Connie C sent me an invitation to The Jewish 29th Film Festival at the Castro which Yelp happens to be one of the sponsors. This is my first experience with the Jewish Film Fest I have volunteered for the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Asian Film Festival in the past years. After the movie, I sauntered over to Sumi Sushi to hook up with Yelpers and movie goers. I met Shiva (Development and Marketing for SFJJ) who sat with me while I was checking out the restaurant I also met her cousin from Israel who seemed as uncomfortable as I was. One guy came up to me and I told him that I'm a Yelper and he responded "Oh, I'm Jewish". The Film: A Matter of Size "The tale of four Israeli men who embrace their heft by attempting to master sumo wrestling! " quote from Connie C. Gidi is the main character who (no pun intended) grows on you. Some of the Yiddish terminology went passed me when some viewers laughed at some food terminology. I wish they had a Yiddish word list for people like me. The story is sweet and hilarious. Amazing how these men with massive girth moves so gracefully! The Film: Joshua (Deutschland 2009) Short Film on opinion of Germany Today (part fantasy and satire) A wild visual trip.

I went to see the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's showing of Rachel this past weekend, and I…read morejust wanted to express my gratitude to the festival for refusing to completely bow to special-interest pressure and cancel the screening. I won't get into the specifics of the controversy here, but there were some people who objected to SFJFF's showing of Rachel because of the film's obvious political slant. Say what you will about any film and its political viewpoint; but there's really no good reason to object to the presence of a relevant film in a film festival, and since Rachel Corrie's death at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2003 is relevant to the Jewish community because of the circumstances of her death and because of the recent invasion (and ongoing siege) of Gaza, the film is especially important now. Basically, I liken the people boycotting the SFJFF because of the showing of Rachel to people boycotting libraries for carrying specific books. Argue the politics all you want, but you can't really have an argument if people can't read (or, in this case, view) the different sides. If you've got some free time in the next couple of weeks, go to one of the festival's many films. Why am I not giving the festival five stars? Well, although I'm glad they didn't cancel the film completely, I think it was idiotic to invite someone who didn't believe they should be showing the film at all to make a statement before the film. Yes, Rachel Corrie's mother would be answering audience questions after the screening, but that's pretty typical of film-festival screenings. Apparently, the SFJFF felt obligated to present both sides of the story at this screening, but it's the only film at which people from opposing sides were invited to speak. At the two screenings of documentaries about captured IDF soldiers, I'm sure SFJFF won't be inviting Hamas and Hezbollah apologists. Plus, the man who spoke before the movie wasn't even trying to engage in dialog; he opposed the showing of the film in the first place, so what was he doing there, and why did SFJFF give him time?

An operating outdoor water fountain is a rare sight given the ongoing shortage of water. The water…read morehere may be recycled or is of a non drinking quality. It's beside an entrance into San Leandro Plaza shopping center from E.14th St. via E. Estudillo Ave. Fountain probably built when Plaza built in the 1980's. It's a sight for sore eyes in a downtown with so many buildings side by side. Running underneath errant droplets of water on an hot day will be welcome relief for the adventurous. Some chairs & tables have been added recently nearby.