Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Falafel: Five Hour Energy

We have an employee who I will keep anonymous who we affectionately call "Five-Hour Energy".  He tirelessly works through some of the most physically demanding jobs at the bakery.  I'm continually in awe of his work ethic and stamina.

When I need five hours of hunger-free energy, I use Chef Matt's Falafel.

Under the guise of the humble ground garbanzo bean, Matt's falafel is a energy bomb of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fiber.  After that sandwich drizzled with tahini sauce and the requiste amount of crunch from fresh lettuce -- all packed into a hummus-schmeared pita, I feel like my workday is now completely powered up.

Events

Recently, we have been programming events to diversify the audience and purpose of the Ninth Street Downtown space.  We have had baking contests, academic discussions, dance parties, rock shows, and maybe even a little bit of theater upcoming.

What would you like to see at Ninth Street?  How do you think our prime Downtown location should be used to benefit the community at large?  How can we be giving back to more organizations that do good works locally?  Do you think there is an audience for our cafe and bar area to be open every night instead of just Saturday nights?

Monday, April 21, 2014

Gastronomical Intensity

At the bakery, we are often in dialogue of what makes food taste good, especially when making comparative judgements ("Why is this wine better than that wine? Why is this falafel better than that falafel?").

I would argue to use a new perspective for this purpose adopted from Gilles Deleuze called intensity.

The best way that I could define intensity as Deleuze uses it to emphasize its properties of dimensionality. With a good wine, (multiple) dimensions are encurled such that infinite space can exist within a droplet of alcohol. Conversely, one might say that a poor wine is flat or monodimensional or "one-note".  Perhaps that is too simplistic but that is the heart of it.  When your palate searches for taste in a food, it can either open up or close off experience. Tastes like umami are something like pure intensity - the fermentation process has turned a common salted soybean into an addictively satisfying gold.

Deleuze speak of the contents of an egg as containing intensities - all the genetic code and nutrients necessary to form a chick are contained within the shell, but in the early goings of incubation, there is nothing discernably chick-like if you were to crack it open. Thus, all the dimensions which will uncurl to create a chicken (or a snake, or a dinosaur) are enfolded microscopically within what appears to be absolute uniformity/consistency.

As Deleuze says, the egg is "defined by axes and vectors, gradients and thresholds, by dynamic tendencies involving energy transformation and kinematic movements involving group displacement, by migrations: all independent of accessory forms because the organs appear and function here only as pure intensities."

Deleuze

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Weekend Update

- We got poured on at our Farmer's Markets this weekend - thanks so much to our stand sellers Stu, Sammi, Amanda, and Sonoe - y'all are the green berets of our of our local food economy.

- Our Rosemary and Olive Oil Matzo was a huge hit - can't wait to make more of this next year.

- Katya put together a delish Mac & Cheese (vegan) that was extremely popular in-store - can't wait to see more of this.  Mac & Cheese pancakes next?

- Getting ready to repaint the floors in the next couple of weeks - get ready for a whole new sheen!

Brunching With the Ladies of Ninth Street: Katya, Amanda, and Kristi

Tracks of the Weekend:

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A Clean Slate

I've wanted to repaint the cafe walls since we took over 6 months ago.   We finally got to it last weekend (big ups to KA, CS, and SMW for helping!).  Hopefully everyone can see the difference.  Floors are next!