You haven’t had ice cream until you’ve tried Bi-Rite Creamery’s. If you are planning on visiting San Francisco, I command you to make a stop to this small shop. Hands down, no que...

Like many of my neighbors, persimmon trees are abundant. Generally, these fruits are ready for picking anywhere from late October to early December. They require little maintenance and are easy to grow, which probably explains why the tree in my backyard has survived for an X amount of years. I remember bringing in a bag of these to work and had a difficult time explaining the flavor of these tomato-pumpkin looking hybrids. One of my coworkers, who had never had these, had described them as having a texture of a nectarine, and a mild taste of apple.

Buttermilk is tart/tangy. The taste reminds me of a yogurt + sour cream mixture. Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product produced from cow’s milk. You can bake, cook, and drink this stuff. It softens the gluten in flour; hence, makes soft, tender cakes. It even makes a great addition to dressing! NY Times has a recent article about the rise of buttermilk–be sure to check it out!

The official start of Fall this year was Sept. 22. Call it wishful thinking, but I think the city’s beginning to feel it…even if it’s just a teeny bit. We’ve been having some rain and cold mornings, but I think we are finally getting there.

I am in love with pastry chef Zoe Nathan. When it comes to pastries and cakes, she has a magic touch–turning flour and butter into an endless selection of pumpkin and ginger breads, cookies, tarts, and cornmeal cake! If you love cornbread, then you will be a huge fan of this recipe. Imagine cornbread’s dense, crumbly texture sweetened with seasonal fruit (and also some sugar). Have no fear, Zoe has graciously shared Rustic Canyon’s cranberry orange cornmeal cake with LA Weekly and Huckleberry’s blueberry cornmeal cake with Bon Appetit.

I never tried bacon until I started college. My parents instilled in me the belief that bacon was a dangerously unhealthy product. It was addicting and dangerous. Just dangerous.

Growing up, I hated bittermelon. My dad would get every opportunity he could get to cook these, but worst part? He didn’t try to cook these any different. It wasn’t like my younger sister and I would come home to a breakfast bittermelon smoothie followed by a bittermelon pie for dessert. Instead, we were greeted with bittermelons stuffed with pork in a chicken-based broth at least once a week...