Anna Mindess News Today

The ebullient Elmy Kader says his joy in life is to feed people. Eating his hearty dishes will leave you feeling both sated and pampered.

Now 70 years old, Sushi California owner Ryoji Arakaki is holding out hope that someone will buy his popular business, but retirement beckons

1854 Euclid Ave. (near Hearst Avenue), Berkeley There is something hypnotizing about watching Rebecca or Dj Dahmani create your crepe at La Crepe a Moi. A quick ladle of brown-flecked batter meets the hot griddle, a fluid swirl of the wrist with a little wooden spreader produces a perfectly smooth circle. Suddenly, you are hit by the enticing aromas of sizzling butter and nutty buckwheat. A long spatula allows a deft flip of the crepe exposing its toasty side, then a shower of cheese, perhaps a...

Follow Kolobok on Instagram to find its weekly schedule and details about delivered holiday dinners In 2018, Ellen Doren and Bulat Nasybulin named their new Russian food truck Kolobok after a Russian folklore character. In the classic tale, Kolobok, a cherubic ball of dough (pictured on the couple’s bright red and yellow truck), escapes the oven, then cleverly keeps rolling on, enjoying adventures in the forest. “He has many stories of endurance and perseverance,” the Kolobok owners expla...

Over four years, 1951 Coffee has trained 225 refugees from 29 countries, and aims to educate its customers about the challenges refugees and asylees face in seeking, attaining and sustaining employment while adapting to their new homes. Photo (from 2017): Angelica Ekeke 2410 Channing Way (between Dana Street and Telegraph Avenue), Berkeley Four years ago, in January 2017, just days after Berkeley’s 1951 Coffee Company opened its Channing Avenue cafe staffed entirely by refugees, President Tru...

Photo: Dibsy Machta Photo: Anna Mindess Every day since March 17 when the shelter in place orders were instituted, Dibsy Machta has decorated her front door at 808 Shattuck Ave. with colorful construction paper cut-outs. The messages urge her Berkeley neighbors to stay safe. They also tally up the grim numbers of COVID-19 deaths both in the US and worldwide. To mark the number of days we have been in lockdown, Matcha has incorporated Roman numerals, scientific numbers and prime numbers....

Plus: Super Bowl eats, Colusa Market owner is retiring; Alameda County passes 'Good Food' resolution for correctional facilities; more.

Takara Sake’s virtual tasting sessions are held over Zoom, but attendees get five bottles to sample at home during the one-hour class. Photo: Anna Mindess In the good old days, sigh, when my husband and I would go out to Japanese restaurants, like Kamado Sushi, Kiku Sushi or Sushi California in Berkeley, we would always order a bottle of cold sake to drink with our meal. We would ask the servers for suggestions (“not too dry, not too sweet”), and they would bring something that we usually...

Supriya Yelimeli looks forward to visiting a crowded dining room at Viks Chaat for cholle bhature — then going back in line for sweets and seconds. Photo: Mighty Travels/Flickr Our final installment of year-end food reflections focuses on the future — hopefully, the not-so-distant future — when we can safely eat, drink and gather again in restaurants and with others outside our immediate households without masks. Below, you’ll find the hopes and wishes of Nosh, Berkeleyside, Oaklandside...

The Peruvian chicken dinner from Michoz, a pop-up operating out of Hidden Cafe in Berkeley, was a memorable feast. Photo: Sarah Han Usually, around this time of year, we’re feeling pretty good. We’re buzzing with a sense of joy and relaxation, spending time with family and friends, gathering and eating meals together and looking back on the fun times we had over the last 12 months. After almost a full year of living with COVID-19, those halcyon holiday times seem so distant from our current...