THE GOCHISO GOURMET: Livin’ la vida local

Or more accurately, as I previously stated (in the article entitled “Support your community”? in the Jan. 1, 2016 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly), I have been attempting in this Year of the Monkey to buy la vida local. Well, it originally sounded easy,  but after my first attempt, it makes me seem more […]

THE GOCHISO GOURMET: Odyssey of the Salmon

Need to keep moving … brown bear, dart right … current getting stronger, must be a waterfall … final kick then leap … whoa, another brown bear, whew, so tired but need to get to the shallows … to spawn … then die… This is both the beginning and the end of the odyssey of […]

Watercolors: Estria Miyashiro paints environmental message

Oakland, the city where I live, pulses with civic and cultural energy, but this vibrancy can feel muted by the specter of blight. A mood of desolation and general shabbiness weighs heavy along too many of our pothole-pocked streets, lined with crumbling buildings and weed-strewn vacant lots. This place is fraying, and not just around the edges, but at its very core. One way that folks around here have rallied against the […]

Sushi sustainability and other alliterative quagmires

Writing about fish makes me hungry. Like, ‘pass the shoyu and get out of my way’ hungry. But when you write about fish on an environmental blog, you’re supposed to caution against eating many of the tastier species, since they are experiencing population crashes as a result of our gustatory enthusiasm. It’s a dilemma. A depressing, delicious dilemma. As I mentioned a couple weeks […]

Something fishy with our fish

Let me make one thing clear off the bat. I love maguro. LOVE IT. It’s like savory ocean pastry. Or red velvet cake with fins. Okay, maybe I won’t make it as a food writer. But maguro sushi is obviously way high on my list of favorite eats. So a little part of my soul dies when […]