Greetings from Austin. This city has been blowing my mind (and my waistline). I can’t wait to write up where I’ve been eating—but those of you following my Twitter feed have a pretty good idea. I have just one more day here at SXSW (South by Southwest), so today’s issue is all about letting other people do my job for me: tablehopper editorial assistant Daisy Chow has a hardhat piece about Proxy (the first container is in place!), and Pete Mulvihill writes in with a bookworm about moonshine. Hic.
Oh wait, I have one more thing for you to read while I take today off! My fab book publisher, Ten Speed Press, has let me post a chapter from my book (The Tablehopper’s Guide to Dining and Drinking in San Francisco: Find the Right Spot for Every Occasion) for those of you who don’t have a copy yet (ahem). Here’s a link to one of my favorite chapters: Shituations.
To be honest, I’m a bit relieved to not have to write up a column today. Not really feeling it. Then again, all I really want to write about is how to help the poor, poor people in Japan. Of course, you can donate funds directly to a variety of organizations, but here are a few restaurant-related ways to help that have arrived in my inbox:
Nombe will be giving $3 of sales of one food item each day to Japan Disaster Relief. You can also donate directly through the JCCNC (Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California) by visiting their page here.
The JapaCurry truck is donating 10% of sales to the Red Cross.
Ebisu and Hotei are donating portions of profits this week from all their locations to Japan Earthquake Relief and the Red Cross.
The Dajani Group will donate 10% of Japanese sake bottle sales (any size) at Tsunami Panhandle and Tsunami Mission Bay, as well as Japanese whisky bottle sales (for storage) at Nihon Whisky Lounge toward the relief efforts.
You can donate to the Red Cross for tsunami relief efforts this Wednesday March 16th at 7:30pm at the Park Chalet in San Francisco, and you’ll be rewarded with a special movie night happy hour. With a donation of at least $5, the Park Chalet is offering happy hour pricing after 3pm, as well as the free showing of Spider-Man.
This Friday March 18th, Kitchenette is donating proceeds to the Tsunami/Earthquake disaster fund. There will be Dogpatch Millionaires, Carolina-style slow-smoked pulled pork BBQ, lemongrass-grilled eggplant banh mis, and braised duck poutine for lunch.
Samin Nosrat is organizing a bake sale for Japan (with three locations, and gunning for more!) on Saturday April 2nd, and needs help. Are you a baker, designer, cook, publicist, or simply want to volunteer? Please click here; you can follow updates on Twitter.
I have shown the artwork of Rigel Stuhmiller on tablehopper before, so I thought I’d mention that she is donating 100% of her profits from all non-custom sales from her Etsy shop from now until March 22nd to Save the Children’s work to help Japanese tsunami victims. And even better: she found a donor who will match all of her donations to the tsunami relief fund, so every dollar people spend in her shop will have twice the impact. Through working on the Chino farm in San Diego over the past decade, Rigel has met a number of Japanese agricultural students whose hometowns lie in the tsunami-affected areas. She says, “Watching the videos of miles of agriculture and towns being wiped out has been very upsetting. I hope to be able to do some good by donating my artwork profits to help them out.”
The fab folks at Umamimart are donating 10% of every purchase towards tsunami relief efforts. Buy a mug. A gold cocktail shaker. Support Japan!
Do you have a blog or website? Please consider donating space and posting ads from the Red Cross on your website; details and materials here.
Please do what you can to help; I’ll be updating this space with more relief news and events in coming weeks. In the meantime, let’s all count our blessings, and I’ll see you on Friday.
XO.
The hama chili dish at Uchiko (Austin): yellowtail sashimi, sliced Thai chile, and orange supremes.View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Mar 15 2011
