Don’t forget: the book mentioned below is available at 20% off for tablehopper readers for two weeks following this mention at Green Apple Books—simply use the code “tablehopper” at checkout (either at the store or online) for your discount.
Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food: A Grocer's Guide to Shopping, Cooking, and Creating Community Through Food Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough (Ten Speed Press)
Bi-Rite Market, in San Francisco’s Mission District, is a dazzling success story. What began as a diminutive, family-run corner store in the 1960s has evolved into something of a phenomenon, now requiring its own full-time security guard just to keep the clamoring crowds at bay. Bi-Rite owner Sam Mogannam has turned author in the new cookbook from Ten Speed Press, Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food, and he wants to let everyone in on his simple secret—it’s the people as much as the produce that make good food taste great.
Eat Good Food isn’t just another recipe-laden tome with pretty pictures. Author Mogannam wanted to create something user-friendly that would be read from cover to cover, and the result is a grocer’s guide to shopping, cooking, and creating community through food. To be sure, Eat Good Food will walk you through all the steps necessary to make classic dishes like Sumac-Roasted Chicken du Monde or Apricot-Ginger Scones (which often sell out within hours at the market), but what really sets Eat Good Food apart from other cookbooks are Mogannam’s tips on selecting and storing the best ingredients. Yes, he covers the ‘thump test’ for selecting ripe melons, but that is only one indicator among many, and Mogannam covers them all. The same can be said for Sam’s tips on everything from meats, cheese, veggies, and even wine and beer—you will learn something by reading Eat Good Food. And if you want gorgeous pictures, Eat Good Food has those too, it seems like there is full-color on every page.
The core of Bi-Rite’s philosophy, however, is the relationship between the local food producers, the market’s staff, and most importantly, the trust of their customers, “…they know that if we carry it, it’s going to be good.” Read Eat Good Food, take part in the dialogue, and then watch whatever you cook go from good to great.
Thanks for reading.
