More Than Just a Cookbook

Of all the “cook” books I purchased this year, among my personal favorites is Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Guide to Shopping, Cooking and Creating Community through Food by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough (Ten Speed).  As the foot-long subtitle implies, Eat Good Food is more than just a collection of recipes.  It is also an aisle-by-aisle, ingredient-by-ingredient buyer’s guide to your local food market.  It’s chock-full of the kind of good advice you once received regularly from your friendly neighborhood grocer who has all but disappeared in the age of the corporate-run mega-market. (Remember when the guy in the produce department actually knew something?)  All good recipes and excellent advice put aside, perhaps the most important aspect of this wonderful book is the story of how a small neighborhood market transformed itself from mere convenience store to a cornerstone of the community.

Sandwiched between the row houses in San Francisco’s eclectic Mission neighborhood (and just around the corner from the popular Tartine Bakery), the tiny market with its big art deco façade has been under the proprietorship of the Mogannam family since the 1960s.  Along with his brother Raphael, Sam Mogannam grew up stocking shelves and helping out after school.  So it’s fair to say the business is in his blood. But as soon as he had the opportunity, Sam left the grocery business for culinary school and success of his own in the restaurant industry.

When his father first offered him the family business in the late 1990s, Sam nearly passed on it, but familial obligations can be hard to ignore.  He eventually accepted his father’s offer but with the one caveat: The younger Mogannam would run Bi-Rite Market his way, the chef’s way.  He revamped the inventory and filled the shelves with the kinds of food he would want to cook.  He forged direct relationships with Bay area farmers and suppliers, and began educating his clients about the ingredients in their food, often connecting shoppers directly with farmers and producers.

Today, Sam’s vision for Bi-Rite may seem like a no-brainer formula for success: Friendly organic mom-and-pop store in a trendy vibrant neighborhood. How could he lose? But it was 1997 when Mogannam embarked on the endeavor, and the neighborhood was quite a different place than it is today. By Sam’s own account, junkies inhabited the nearby park, stabbings and shootings were standard fare, and steel bars covered the store windows.  Mogannam was taking a huge risk.

Among the first things to go were the bars. “What a drama that was,” he recounts. “All these old-timers – people we hadn’t seen in years – came and asked, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy?’ To me those bars made the store feel like a fortress. I wanted the store to look inviting and welcoming, so I told [them], ‘I’m taking the bars off, and I’m just going to deal with it.’” Given the conditions at the time, Sam’s vision seems all the more extraordinary.

Bi-Rite’s metamorphosis proved to be wildly successful.  In the first year of the transformation sales exceeded expectations by 25%, and in just three years, the little-market-that-could was pulling in more than $3 million dollars a year. Sam’s incredible commitment and passion not only revamped Bi-Rite, it may have very well re-invented the concept of the corner grocer.

With Eat Good Food, Sam and co-author Dabney Gough have distilled the essence and philosophy of Bi-Rite into a book that you can call upon again and again as you navigate the aisles of your own neighborhood market. The book’s recipes and buying tips are grouped by department.  In the grocery section, for example, you’ll learn that the corner market is not always the best place to purchase flour. (Hint: It has to do with turnover.) You’ll also learn how to use that flour to make a sophisticated citrus & olive oil cake.  Likewise, in produce, you will learn why avocados taste better in winter, and how they can create a delicious seasonal salad when partnered with fennel and blood oranges.  Want to know the differences between natural, bloomy and washed rind cheeses?  See the cheese monger. There is also the butchery, bakery and dairy sections; all filled with excellent advice to turn even the most ill-informed shopper into an expert.

Along the way, we get to meet some of the names and faces behind the foods sold at Bi-Rite. Whether its folks like Mark and Nibby Bartle of Two Dog Farm near Santa Cruz, California, who use a method of dry-farming to produce a variety of tomatoes the authors call “life-changing”, or dairy farmer Albert Straus, whose grass-fed milk is sweetened by the effects of coastal fog, these small vignettes remind us of the human factors – not corporations – that make a difference in the foods we eat and create a real connections between farm and table.

At the heart of Eat Good Food is the Bi-Rite ethos, which could eventually rejuvenate the concept of the corner market in cities all across America.  By tapping into the same energy that has fueled the resurgence of farmers markets, the independent grocer can find new life. The Bi-Rite model is the blueprint for that transformation.  Following Sam’s lead,  independent local grocers need to step up their game by offering real food alternatives and sourcing as locally as possible.  It might even take a little push from us.  As Mogannam and other food crusaders have pointed out, we, the shoppers, can affect change through the choices we make. Our collective buying power is a transformative force.  We need to be asking our local grocers a lot of questions and demanding better products.  They will either get the message or get out of the way.

While the great advice and delicious recipes are enough to warrant a purchase, I love this book for the story it tells.  It gives me real hope that the independent neighborhood market can make a comeback by transforming itself into a true alternative to corporate-run supermarkets all while building a stronger community through food.  If I had my way, every community in America would have access to a market like Bi-Rite.

Ginger-Lemongrass Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Makes about 30 small skewers

Ingredients: 

• 1 stalk fresh lemongrass
• 1 1/2-inch knob fresh ginger, peeled
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 2 scallions, very thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed or other neutral oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, 
more as needed
• 4 teaspoons Asian fish sauce, more as needed
• 3/4  teaspoon honey
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
• 1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Asian chili garlic sauce

Method:

Cut the pale yellow bottom portion off the lemongrass stalk and discard the green top. Trim about 3/4 inch from the root end, then peel off and discard the tough outer layers. You should end up with a stick of only the more tender inner layers, about 1/2 inch thick and 3 inches long. Finely mince the lemongrass, along with the ginger and garlic; the pieces should be no bigger than 1/16 inch. (You can do most of this in a food processor and finish with a little hand chopping.) Put the mixture in a medium bowl and stir in the scallions, the oil, 1 tablespoon of the lime juice, 2 teaspoons of the fish sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon of the honey.

Slice the chicken into 1/3-inch-thick strips about 
1 inch wide—slice across the grain and at an angle on breasts, and with the grain on thighs. You should have about 30 strips. Add to the bowl with the lemongrass mixture, stir to coat the chicken evenly, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

To make the dipping sauce, put the peanut butter in a small bowl. Stir in enough warm water to make a thick sauce (about 1/4 cup, depending on the peanut butter), then add the vinegar, chili garlic sauce, and the remaining 2 teaspoons fish sauce, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons lime juice, and 1/4 teaspoon honey. Taste and adjust the saltiness, heat, or acidity to your liking; thin with more water if necessary.

Prepare a medium-hot gas or charcoal grill or heat a large grill pan. Meanwhile, thread the chicken onto the skewers. Grill the chicken, flipping once, until just cooked through, 1 to 3 minutes per side. (Alternatively, you can cook the skewers under a broiler—about 8 minutes total—but they won’t brown as well.)

Serve with the dipping sauce.

Photos and recipes reprinted with permission from Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Grocer’s Guide to Shopping, Cooking, and Creating Community Through Food by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough. Copyright © 2011 by Bi-Rite Market, Inc. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Photo credit: France Ruffenach.

Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Grocer’s Guide to Shopping, Cooking, and Creating Community Through Food

by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough

Ten Speed Press, Berkley CA.

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